Lihtavy  of Che:  C  heolo^ical  ^^mimvy 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Aut±ior 
October  26,  1901 


DC  158.2    ,S63  1901 
Sloane,   William  Milligan, 

1850-1928. 
The  French  revolution  and 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2014 

https://archive.org/details/frenchrevolutionOOsloa_0 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AND 
RELIGIOUS  REFORM 


THE 

FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

AND 

RELIGIOUS  REFORM 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL 
LEGISLATION  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  AFFAIRS  IN  FRANCE 
FROM  1789  TO  1804 


BY  y 
WILLIAM  MILLIGAN  SLOANE 

L.H.D.,  LL.D. 

SETH  LOW  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY  IN  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


BASED  ON  THE  MORSE  LEC- 
TURES FOR  1900  BEFORE  THE 
UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1901 


Copyright,  1901,  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 

Published  October,  1901. 


THE  DEVINNE  PRESS. 


VIRO  EGREGIO 

SETH  LOW,  LL.D. 

DE  RE  PUBLICA  ALMAdUE  MATRE 
BENE  MERENTI 
HAS  PRIMITIAS  PROFESSORIATUS  SUI 
DEDICAT  SCRIPTOR. 


PREFACE 


The  troubles  of  a  governmental  system  in  which 
church  and  state  were  for  centuries  so  closely  identi- 
fied that  responsibility  could  be  fixed  upon  neither  have 
dislocated  the  proportions  of  both  in  the  field  of  his- 
tory. The  ever  growing  disintegration  and  disor- 
ganization of  ecclesiastical  government  in  the  Teu- 
tonic or  Reformed  Church,  have  in  contemporary  times 
discredited  ecclesiasticism  still  further,  and  now  its 
most  modern  forms  appear  well-nigh  contemptible  as 
historic  forces.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  latest 
generations  have  fallen  into  the  natural  but  serious 
error  of  establishing  for  themselves,  as  a  judicial 
standpoint,  the  total  separation  of  church  and  state, 
not  alone  institutionally  but  likewise  historically.  The 
stubborn  efforts  to  explain  medicevalism  with  little  or 
no  consideration  for  the  unifying  political  influence  of 
the  church  are  pitiful;  the  widely  heralded  discovery 
that  the  Thirty  Years'  War  ended  ecclesiastical  politics 
is  fantastic ;  the  so-called  secular  history  of  the  revolu- 
tionary epoch,  relegating  church  influence  to  a  few  par- 
agraphs, utterly  fails  to  satisfy  the  demand  for  logical 
sequence.  When  we  consider  the  splendors  of  the 
Roman  Church  in  its  long  intervals  of  sanity,  the  sound 

vii 


viii 


PREFACE 


views  it  held  of  life,  the  brilliant  leadership  it  exer- 
cised in  philosophy,  literature  and  art,  the  lofty  aims  it 
exhibited,  the  ameliorations  of  social  life  it  secured,  the 
constancy  of  its  work,  the  continuity  of  its  life,  the  com- 
prehensive bond  it  was  for  all  civilizing  agencies — we 
cannot  wonder  at  the  hold  it  kept  on  men's  imagin- 
ations even  during  its  lapses  into  worldliness. 

It  is  therefore  essential  not  that  we  should  study 
secular  history  as  a  discipline  of  church  history,  but 
that  we  should  give  due  place  to  the  church  as  a  social 
and  political  force  everywhere  and  at  all  times.  The 
Roman  hierarchy  in  France  was  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  most  influential  estate  of  the  realm.  Its  in- 
iquities were  long  concealed  by  its  traditional  prestige. 
The  masses  were  scarcely  aware  of  the  facts  and  they 
had  a  racial  instinct  of  devotion  to  the  papacy.  During 
the  long  prologue  to  the  Revolution  the  agitations  of 
the  public  mind  were  confined  to  a  minority  of  the  na- 
tion; only  a  still  smaller  minority  w^as  able  to  draw 
distinctions,  which  appeared  at  bottom  to  be  metaphysi- 
cal; and  a  very  few  displayed  capacity  for  leadership. 
It  seems  as  if  there  were  not  even  a  handful  of  indi- 
viduals who  had  an  historic  consciousness  and  the  for- 
ward look  essential  in  great  crises. 

Nevertheless  it  is  distinctly  true  that  the  deeper  the 
insight  we  get  into  the  facts  of  the  Revolution,  the 
clearer  it  becomes  that  both  in  its  preparation  and  in 
its  initial  stages  it  followed  wholesomely  and  normally 
French  precedent  and  tradition.  Had  its  course  not 
been  obstructed,  the  current  might  have  flowed  smooth- 


PREFACE 


ix 


ly,  though  at  best  too  rapidly,  and  continuous  reform 
might  have  in  some  measure  prevented  spasmodic  revo- 
lution. 

But  this  was  not  to  be ;  the  current  was  dammed,  the 
barriers  were  inadequate,  and  the  flood  wrought  havoc 
in  its  inevitable  outbreak.  Not  one  of  the  causes  gener- 
ally assigned  is  approximately  adequate  to  explain  the 
sad  phenomenon.  It  was  not  solely  due  to  fiscal  bank- 
ruptcy, for  the  nation  found  resources  which  enabled  it 
to  put  forth  unprecedented  exertions  in  both  offensive 
and  defensive  warfare.  It  was  not  entirely  caused  by 
the  survivals  of  secular  feudalism,  for  those  survivals, 
though  oppressive,  were  insignificant  in  comparison 
with  the  feudal  burdens  carried  by  neighboring  lands 
where  no  conflagration  was  kindled.  Nor  was  it  even 
measurably  due  to  that  mysterious,  secret  upheaval 
attributed  to  mental  exaltation,  of  which  so  much  has 
been  suggested  and  hinted,  but  about  which  nothing  is 
known ;  the  burgher  and  peasant  masses  of  France  were 
better  instructed  and  more  intelligent  than  their  fellows 
elsewhere,  but  they  only  worried  themselves  into  re- 
bellion, exhibiting  no  comprehension  whatsoever  of 
their  plight  or  their  task.  Doubtless  all  these  causes 
worked  together,  but  the  mightiest  obstructive  force 
was  ecclesiastical  fanaticism,  both  positive  and  nega- 
tive. This  at  least  is  what  the  following  lectures  are 
intended  to  suggest.  The  deism  and  atheism  of  the 
"philosophers''  were  alike  organic  and  their  suppor- 
ters were  sectaries ;  they  may  therefore  be  regarded 
as  religious  forces  for  the  purposes  of  our  discussion; 


X 


PREFACE 


though  they  belonged  neither  to  the  category  of  re- 
vealed nor  that  of  natural  religions,  their  votaries  were 
exact,  strict,  scrupulous,  we  may  even  say  conscien- 
tious, in  their  devotion. 

The  narrative  of  this  volume  follows  as  closely  as 
may  be  the  course  of  legislation  and  parliamentary  de- 
bate. For  the  rather  unsatisfactory  reports  of  the  lat- 
ter reliance  has  been  placed  in  most  cases  on  the 
"Moniteur,"  the  ''Archives  Parlementaires,"  the  volu- 
minous "Histoire  Parlementaire"  of  Buchez  and  Roux 
and  the  original  documents  contained  in  the  vast 
storehouse  of  printed  sources  published  by  the  Muni- 
cipal Council  of  the  City  of  Paris.  The  secondary 
sources,  though  likewise  somewhat  confusing  in  their 
accounts,  are  abundant.  It  is  simply  a  burden  to  the 
reader  to  distract  the  attention  and  disturb  the  eye 
by  giving  references  for  every  statement  of  well-known 
fact.  Accordingly  the  footnotes  have  been  confined 
to  points  of  more  special  interest.  The  student  who 
desires  to  follow  and  verify  the  context  by  personal 
research,  can  find  most  of  the  sources  in  the  above 
collections  under  the  corresponding  date;  those  sug- 
gestions or  indications  not  easily  found  are  designated 
by  footnotes.  By  far  the  largest  number  of  the  au- 
thorities are  on  the  shelves  of  the  Library  of  Colum- 
bia University  and  of  the  Xew  York  Public  Library. 
For  a  few  others  I  have  been  indebted  to  the  National 
Collections  in  Paris,  and  to  the  libraries  of  Harvard 
and  Cornell  Universities  respectively.  The  Andrew  D. 
White  collection  of  Cornell  is  especially  rich  in  mate- 


PREFACE 


XI 


rial.  As  to  the  spelling  of  proper  names  there  is  such 
diversity  in  the  original  authorities  that  it  seemed  best 
to  follow  the  modern  usage  of  French  writers. 

The  substance  of  this  book  was  delivered  in  the  form 
of  eight  lectures  before  the  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  Xew  York  on  "The  Morse  Foundation."  It  is 
printed  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  endow- 
ment, but  the  text  has  been  expanded  to  more  than 
twice  the  amount  actually  read.  For  the  courtesy  and 
good  will  shown  by  the  officers  of  the  Union  Semi- 
nary in  connection  with  the  preparation,  delivery  and 
publication  of  the  lectures  the  author  makes  grateful 
acknowledgment.  W.  M.  S. 

Columbia  University,  October  i,  1901. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction 

Danger  of  reform  in  old  societies.  The  changes  too  swift,  XXI.  Contrast 
between  1780  and  1810.  Transitory  nature  of  the  Bourbon  restoration,  xxii. 
Why  the  Revolution  exploded  in  France.  Composite  forces  of  the  move- 
ment, XXIII.  Amalgamation  of  political  with  ecclesiastical  power.  Dangers 
of  conservatism,  xxiv.  Dualism  of  secular  and  spiritual  power  in  Chris- 
tendom. Relations  of  the  two,  xxv.  The  fortunes  of  feudalism  and  the 
popedom.  Beneficent  action  of  the  church,  xxvi.  Overthrow  of  the  pope- 
dom. Rise  of  nationalities,  xxvii.  Place  of  Calvinism  in  the  movement. 
Its  political  influence,  xxviii. 


Chapter  I 

REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION 

Split  in  the  European  state  system.  Rise  of  the  revolutionary  spirit,  3. 
Relations  of  the  churches.  The  contract  theory  of  government,  4.  The 
class  of  professional  writers.  Influence  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  5.  The 
Physiocrats.  Their  ideals  and  sanctions,  6.  Respective  convictions  of 
the  social  classes  in  France.  L Infdme  of  Voltaire,  7.  Meaning  of  the 
word.  Loss  of  the  historic  sense,  8.  Ecclesiastical  organizations  in 
France.  Religion  positive  and  negative,  9.  Relations  of  the  French 
monarchy  and  the  popedom.  Influence  of  the  Jesuits,  10.  The  theory 
of  Jansenism.  The  Jesuits  and  the  Reformation,  11.  The  Jesuits  and 
the  popedom.  Jansen's  "Augustinus,"  12.  The  Bull  "  Unigenitus."  The 
power  of  Jansenism  in  French  life,  13.  Attitude  of  the  French  masses 
toward  the  hierarchy.  Struggle  of  the  parlements,  14.  Relation  of  the 
parleynents  to  the  people.  The  clergy  demand  the  assembling  of  the  Es- 
tates, 15.  grandes  remontmnces^  16. 


Chapter  II 

VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM 

Elements  of  unity  in  France.  Non-conformity  a  kind  of  treason,  19.  The 
Bologna  Concordat  of  1516.  Fall  of  the  Jesuit  order,  20.  Papal  control 
of  the  French  episcopate.  Disrepute  of  Jansenism,  21.  Tem|)orary  di.>- 
grace  of  the  parlements.  The  privilege  of  a  corrupt  church,  22.  Con- 
tributions due  from  church  estates.  Malversation  of  charitable  funds,  23. 
Fusion  of  the  nobility  and  prelacy.  The  principle  of  beneficent  use,  24. 
Wealth  of  the  prelacy.  Influence  of  the  prelates  at  court,  25,  Voltaire 
and  the  higher  clergy.    Persecuting  spirit  of  the  church,  26.    The  case 


xiii 


xiv 


CONTENTS 


of  Calas.  Sirven  charged  with  infanticide,  27.  Voltaire  as  a  protector  of 
the  persecuted.  The  extermination  of  dissent,  28.  Treatment  of  Catho- 
lic mischief-makers.  The  case  of  Labarre,  29.  The  victory  of  a  cause. 
The  edict  of  tolerance,  30.    Emigration  of  the  Protestants,  31, 


Chapter  III 

THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION 

"The  infamous  woman."  Desire  for  emancipation,  35.  Forms  of  oppres- 
sion. Items  of  the  indictment,  36.  Relation  of  the  Protestants  to  French 
life.  Tlieir  skill  in  public  affairs  and  relation  to  the  Revolution,  37.  How 
they  were  goaded  to  fanaticism.  The  classical  tendency  in  France,  38. 
The  classical  spirit  and  constitutional  government.  Men  as  automata,  39. 
French  theory  of  liberty.  The  secular  idea  identical  in  spirit  with  the  reli- 
gious, 40.  Corruption  of  the  clergy.  The  affair  of  the  diamond  necklace, 
41.  Virtues  of  the  lower  clergy.  Their  relation  to  the  prelacy  and  to  the 
Revolution,  42.  Jansenism  and  the  courts.  Power  of  the  lawyer  class,  43. 
Political  theories  of  the  revolutionary  agitation.  All  classes  supporters  of 
monarchy,  44.  Idea  of  a  republican  monarchy.  Awakening  of  the  historic 
spirit,  45.    Stages  of  reform.    Ignorance  of  the  masses,  46. 


Chapter  IV 

ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY 

Attack  on  the  Bastille  an  act  of  self-defence.  The  alarm  of  the  Paris  popu- 
lace, 49.  Broglie  s  mercenary  army  as  a  menace.  The  victory  an  act  of 
faith,  50.  Religious  sentiments  of  the  people.  Acts  of  public  worship,  51. 
Religious  hope  a  characteristic  of  1789.  The  Revolution  as  the  work  of 
God^  52.  The  transition  to  ferocity.  The  reactionary  temper  of  the  prelacy, 
53.  It  demands  the  abrogation  of  the  edict  of  tolerance.  Revolt  of  the 
Jansenists  and  lower  clergy,  54.  The  cahiers  of  the  clergy.  The  noble 
abbots  of  f>ance,  55.  Scandals  of  tlie  monastic  establishments.  The  pre- 
texts of  the  prelates,  56.  Rise  of  popular  authority.  The  populace  inaugu- 
rates reform,  57.  The  attitude  of  the  prelates  a  menace  to  reform.  Forced 
enthusiasm  of  the  Assembly,  58.  The  inconsistency  of  the  burghers. 
Popular  outcry  against  all  clerics,  59.  Contrast  of  social  extremes.  Revo- 
lution loses  its  religious  character,  60.  Internal  causes  of  social  disintegra- 
tion. Attacks  on  property,  61.  Discrepancies  of  the  tithing  system.  Amount 
of  the  tithes,  62.    The  burdens  lifted,  63. 


Chapter  V 

THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE 

Motives  for  abolishing  feudahsm.  The  Assembly  as  a  constituent  body,  67. 
The  unwritten  constitution  of  France.  The  Tennis  Court  Oath,  68.  The 
idea  of  fundamental  laws.  The  Declaration  of  Rights,  69.  The  municipal 
revolution.  The  i^relates  as  anarchists,  70.  The  Assembly  forced  to  out- 
run the  Ecclesiastical  Committee.  How  tithes  were  to  be  abolished,  71. 
The  propositions  adopted.  Famine  and  the  ecclesiastical  estates,  72.  Bit- 
terness of  the  radical  agitators.  The  wealth  of  the  prelates,  73.  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Ecclesiasdcal  Committee,  The  influential  members,  74.  Camus 
as  a  lawyer  and  scholar.  His  career,  75.  Grc^goire  as  a  deputy.  Excel- 
lence of  his  character,  76.    Dom  Gerle  as  an  enthusiast.    Religion  in  the 


CONTENTS 


XV 


Declaration  of  Rights,  77.  The  radicals  dissatisfied.  The  call  for  complete 
religious  emancipation,  78.  The  black  cockade  at  the  Versailles  banquet. 
Mob  violence  against  all  clergymen,  79.  Beginning  of  clerical  emigration. 
Debate  on  religious  liberty,  80.  Moderation  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mittee, 81. 

Chapter  VI 

SEIZURE  AND  SALE  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES 

Nature  of  church  property.  Voluntary  contribution  of  church  silver,  85. 
Dupont's  inventory  of  ecclesiastical  indebtedness.  The  heritage  and  the 
heir,  86.  Contrast  of  popular  misery  and  prelatic  luxury.  Maladministra- 
tion of  public  charities,  87.  The  king  requested  to  confiscate  charitable 
funds.  Abuses  in  the  hospitals  and  prisons,  88.  The  Bishop  of  Autun  as 
a  financier.  All  church  property  to  be  treated  as  the  tithes  had  been,  89. 
Power  of  the  mob.  The  academic  debates  on  the  nature  of  property,  90. 
Mirabeau  advocates  confiscation.  Retort  of  Maury  and  counterplea  of 
Camus,  91.  Common  sense  and  juristic  dialectic.  Malouet  as  a  concilia- 
tor, 92.  Intervention  of  the  mob.  "  Church  property  at  the  disposal  of 
the  nation,"  93.  History  of  the  idea.  Salaries  provided  for  the  pnests  and 
prelates,  94.  Urgency  for  action.  Exasperation  of  the  higher  clergy  and 
the  radicals,  95.  The  fatal  errors  of  the  Assembly.  Contrast  between 
dealings  with  monarchy  and  ecclesiastics,  96.  The  double  attack  on 
French  society,  97. 

Chapter  VII 

PRELUDE  TO  THE  CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  OF 
THE  CLERGY 

Dom  Gerle  as  a  dramatic  element.  The  rise  of  democracy,  loi.  The  higher 
clergy  refuse  reform.  The  lower  clergy  accept  it  but  suffer,  102.  They 
reject  the  new  definition  of  property.  Treilhard  presents  report  of  Eccle- 
siastical Committee,  103.  Protest  from  the  Bishop  of  Clermont.  Report 
adopted  and  sale  of  ecclesiastical  domains  begun,  104.  Monasticism  at- 
tacked. New  attitude  of  the  Assembly  toward  Protestants,  105.  The 
status  of  Roman  Catholicism  discussed.  The  motion  of  Dom  Gerle,  106. 
The  question  formulated.  Mirabeau  desires  Roman  Catholicism  to  be  a 
national  religion,  107.  He  is  hooted  down.  The  substitute  for  Gerle's  mo- 
tion, 108.  Protest  of  the  prelates.  Church  domains  seized  and  sold,  109. 
The  Assembly's  Poor  Laws.  Reform  inaugurated, 'no.  The  levelling 
process  begun.  The  Third  Estate  and  the  proletariat,  iii.  Suffrage  lim- 
ited to  active  citizens.  Eligibility  to  office,  112.  The  plan  impossible. 
Paris  overthrows  the  plan,  113.  Recapitulation  of  Protestant  history.  The 
revival  under  Antoine  Court,  114.  Edict  of  1724.  Organization  of  wor- 
ship, 115.  The  Protestants  emancipated.  Treatment  of  the  Jews,  116. 
Final  dispositions  as  to  Jews.  The  non-Catholic  elements  of  French  popu- 
lation, 117.    The  new  idea  of  equality,  118. 


Chapter  VIII 

THE  CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY 

Confusion  in  the  popular  mind  as  to  aristocracy.  The  notion  of  representa- 
tion. 121.  English  and  American  precedents.  French  idea  of  church  es- 
tablishment, 122.   Limitations  of  popular  sovereignty.   Selden  and  Camus, 


xvi 


CONTENTS 


123.  Religious  habits  of  France.  Rousseau's  concept  of  absolute  sover- 
eignty, 124.  Confusion  of  ecclesiastical  and  secular  powers.  Imminence 
of  civil  war,  125.  The  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  an  effort  at  reform. 
The  plea  of  the  ecclesiastics,  126.  Attitude  of  the  Constitution  toward  the 
Pope.  Popular  choice  of  pastors  and  their  ordination,  127.  The  outline  of 
the  Constitution.  Choice  of  pastors  by  ballot,  128.  The  metropolitan 
bishop  as  the  source  of  spiritual  mission.  The  Pope  as  an  expression  of 
church  unity,  129.  Relation  of  the  Constitution  to  the  theories  of  the  age. 
Hesitation  of  Pius  VI,  130.  The  king's  dilemma.  Resistance  of  the  prel- 
acy, 131.  Robespierre's  idea  of  priests  as  civil  servants.  Remnants  of 
mediaevalism,  132.  Growing  opposition  of  the  clericals.  Outbreak  of  civil 
war,  133.  Former  theory  of  the  relations  between  kingship  and  the  church. 
Change  in  the  episcopate,  134.  Pastoral  letters  of  the  ultramontanes.  All 
refractory  priests  rebels,  135.    The  oath  of  allegiance,  136. 


Chapter  IX 

THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY 

Reform  verges  to  revolution.  Division  of  opinion  among  the  canonists,  139. 
The  king's  attitude.  He  signs  the  Constitution  with  apparent  sincerity, 
140.  The  oath  of  allegiance  required  from  officiating  priests.  Demand 
that  it  be  obligatory  on  all  priests,  141.  The  clerical  members  of  the  As- 
sembly withdraw.  They  are  supported  by  a  majority  of  the  laity,  142. 
Mirabeau  attacks  the  clergy.  The  organization  of  the  Constitutional 
Church,  143.  Deplorable  results.  Silence  of  the  Vatican  and  the  king's 
duplicity,  144.  False  position  of  both  parties.  Character  of  the  new  clergy, 
145.  Renewed  rioting.  The  king  turned  back  from  St.  Cloud,  146.  La- 
fayette and  the  non-jurors.  Rise  of  democracy,  147.  Leaders  of  the  demo- 
crats. The  word  "republic,"  148.  Classes  of  democrats.  Louis  XVI 
apparently  yields,  149.  The  Constitutional  mass  at  St.  Germain  I'Aux- 
errois.  The  Pope's  Rhone  counties,  150.  He  condemns  the  Constitution 
and  the  Revolution.  Pronounces  the  former  heretical,  151.  Double-deal- 
ing of  the  Constitutionals.  Resultant  outrages,  152.  Divergent  course  of 
Constitutional  bishops.  Death  of  Mirabeau,  153.  The  party  of  the  "pa- 
triots."   Disasters  incident  to  the  king's  flight,  154. 


Chapter  X 

WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW 

The  road  to  chaos.  Final  steps,  158.  Jesuitry  of  the  king.  His  plan 
thwarted,  158.  The  king's  motives.  His  arraignment  of  the  Civil  Con- 
stitution, 159.  Lafayette  and  religious  liberty.  The  oath  to  the  two  "  con- 
stitutions," 160.  The  disorders  of  1791  due  to  the  "patriot"  party. 
Nature  of  the  rioting,  161.  Reports  on  the  subject.  Behavior  of  the 
Consdtutional  bishops,  162.  Mob  rule  in  Paris.  Degeneracy  of  the 
Legislative,  163.  The  clerical  oath  a  source  of  evil.  Violence  of  the  re- 
fractory clergy,  164.  They  are  styled  aristocrats.  Renewed  ecclesiastical 
legislation,  165.  The  refractory  clergy  denounced  as  traitors.  Efforts  at 
conciliation,  166.  Violence  of  the  non-jurors.  Call  for  complete  disestab- 
Ushment  of  religion,  167.  Increase  of  scepticism.  Idea  of  a  national  re- 
ligion, 168.  The  public  festivals  of  France.  The  classical  spirit,  169. 
Talleyrand's  plea  for  national  festivals.  Mirabeau  and  Cabanis,  170. 
Mass  celebrated  in  1790  at  the  Festival  of  Federation.    The  "  altar  of  the 


CONTENTS 


xvii 


countr>',"  171.  Beginning  of  atheistic  festivals.  Voltaire's  remains  to  be 
placed  in  the  Pantheon,  172.  Vain  protests  against  the  decree.  Triumph 
of  the  secularizers,  173.  The  new  saint.  Arrival  of  the  procession  in 
Paris,  174.  Enthusiasm  of  the  mob.  Secular  canonization,  175.  Deifica- 
tion of  Reason,  176. 

Chapter  XI 

THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION 

State  of  the  monasteries,  179.  Strengthened  by  the  law  of  1790,  A  new  at- 
tack, 180.  The  theory  of  public  safety.  The  king  alienates  the  legislature, 
181.  The  Girondists  at  the  helm.  Rise  of  the  war  spirit,  182.  Duplicity 
of  the  king.  Suspicion  aroused,  183.  Confusion  of  secular  and  religious 
duty.  1  he  Avignon  massacres,  184.  No  tolerance  for  the  refractory 
clergy.  The  king  vetoes  the  decree,  185.  Identification  of  all  priests  as 
traitors.  Religion  as  treason,  186.  Climax  of  riot  and  disorder.  The 
Constitutionals  take  a  fatal  step,  187.  The  country  declared  to  be  in  dan- 
ger. The  desire  for  anarchy,  188.  Analogy  with  the  English  revolution 
of  1688,  189.  No  present  hope  for  religious  liberty.  The  Revolution  as  a 
movement  against  religion,  igo.  Defiance  of  European  opinion.  The 
convents  closed  and  estates  confiscated,  191.  Massacre  legalized.  The 
battle  of  Valmy,  192.  The  Convention  attacks  all  religion.  The  new  oath 
of  allegiance,  193.  Indecision  of  the  Pope.  Proscription  of  the  clergy, 
194.  Clerical  marriages  prescribed.  The  swift  descent  to  irreligion,  ig'$. 
Energy  of  the  radicals.  Confusion  of  public  opinion,  196.  The  notorious 
apostacy  of  1793.  Gr^goire  stems  the  tide,  197.  The  Festival  of  Reason, 
198.  The  Festival  of  the  Supreme  Being,  199.  Attacks  on  Robespierre, 
200. 

Chapter  XII 

A  GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 

All  Christians  temporarily  united  against  atheism,  203.  The  horrors  of  de- 
portation. The  emigration  of  the  clerg>',  204.  The  new  conformists.  Min- 
istrations during  the  Terror,  205.  Behavior  of  the  absentees.  A  faithful 
Constitutional,  206.  Gr^goire's  speech  on  liberty  of  worship.  The  French 
fury,  207.  Robespierre's  fall,  208.  The  Thermidorians  as  persecutors. 
Triumph  of  moderation  in  Paris,  209.  Grdgoire's  famous  plea  delivered. 
Effect  of  his  pastoral,  210.  Rehgious  liberty  decreed.  Feeling  of  relief,  211. 
Police  supervision  of  worship.  No  cessation  of  persecution,  212.  Salaries 
and  pensions  of  clerics.  The  secular  cult  in  preparation,  213.  Dises- 
tablishment of  the  Constitutionals.  Their  organization  perpetuated,  214. 
Celebration  of  the  Decadis.  The  concept  of  Theophilanthropy,  215. 
Churches  reopened.  A  new  stumbling-block,  216.  Compromise  consid- 
ered. The  royalist  folly,  217.  Reaction  of  the  Convention.  The  clericals 
dismayed,  218.  The  Day  of  the  Sections,  219.  The  Directory  favors  per- 
secution.   The  church  bell  as  a  party  cry,  220.    Revival  of  royalism,  221. 


Chapter  XIII 

ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY 

France  and  the  new  system  of  public  law  in  Europe,  225.  Weakness  of  the 
Directory.  The  V/hite  Terror,  226.  Its  significance.  Political  power  de- 
pendent on  the  army,  227.    Failure  of  French  armies.    New  arrangement 


xviii 


CONTENTS 


of  French  society,  228.  No  religious  liberty  under  the  Directory.  Jordan's 
plea  for  freedom  of  worship,  229.  Royer-Collard  suggests  a  new  concordat. 
The  radicals  again  supreme,  230.  The  oath  of  hatred  to  royalty.  Religion 
openly  proscribed,  231.  Deportation  of  priests.  The  Constitutionals  again 
strengthened,  232.  Revival  and  survival  of  religious  feeling,  233.  Reor- 
ganization of  the  Constitutional  church,  234.  Disintegration  of  French 
society.  Meetings  held  on  Decadis,  235.  Resistance  to  the  effort.  Theo- 
philanthropy,  236.  Its  supporters  and  festivals.  The  high-priest  and  his 
assistants,  237.  The  services  and  holidays,  238.  Complete  disorganization 
of  Protestantism,  239.  Tyranny  of  the  Directory,  240.  "King  and  reli- 
gion" the  new  watchword.  Bonaparte's  prestige,  241.  Prehminaries  of 
the  Concordat,  242. 


Chapter  XIV 

DESIGN  AND  FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT 

The  Day  of  18  Brumaire.  The  rehef  of  France,  245.  Character  of  the  pro- 
visional Consulate,  246.  The  new  constitution.  Religious  parties  of  the 
Consulate,  247.  Their  relations  to  each  other,  248.  The  Freethinkers. 
Design  of  Bonaparte,  249.  The  First  Consul's  alternatives,  249.  Views 
concerning  the  Concordat,  250.  Defects  of  criticism.  Views  of  the  Or- 
thodox Catholics,  251.  The  Casuists.  The  system  of  tolerance,  252. 
Ministers  of  religion  as  state  functionaries.  Ideal  of  the  Revolution. 
Bonaparte's  aim,  253.  The  Concordat  as  a  compromise,  254.  Religious 
opinions  of  Bonaparte,  255.  His  ecclesiastical  diplomacy,  256.  Terms 
proposed  to  Pius  VII.  Change  in  the  episcopate,  257.  Reasons  for  the 
change.  Negotiations  begun,  258.  Attitude  of  the  Constitutionals.  Dis- 
position of  the  church  estates,  259.  The  reconstruction  of  the  episcopate, 
260.  Conduct  of  Pius  VII,  261.  Strength  of  the  First  Consul,  262.  The 
final  draft  of  the  Concordat,  263. 


Chapter  XV 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  CONCORDAT 

The  power  of  France.  The  weakness  of  the  papacy,  267.  The  Council  of 
the  Constitutionals,  268.  Wiles  of  the  Papal  negotiators.  The  state  of 
public  opinion  in  France,  269.  The  Consular  court.  Dispersal  of  radical 
forces,  270.  Protests  against  the  Concordat.  Consalvi's  charge  of  dupli- 
city, 271.  Negotiations  broken  and  renewed,  272.  The  crucial  article 
accepted,  273.  The  Concordat  proclaimed.  Schism  of  the  "Little 
Church,"  274.  Organization  of  the  new  system.  The  Organic  Articles, 
275.  Despotic  elements  of  the  latter,  276.  Dissenters  under  the  Concor- 
dat, 277.  Importance  of  the  new  measures  in  France  and  elsewhere,  278. 
Changes  in  the  other  Catholic  lands,  279.  Modifications  in  France  under 
Napoleon,  280.    Effects  of  the  Concordat  in  contemporary  France,  281. 


INTRODUCTION 


INTRODUCTION 


Libertas :  quae,  sera,  tamen  respexit  inertem, 
Candidior  postquam  tondenti  barba  cadebat : 
Respexit  tamen,  et  longo  post  tempore  venit,  etc. 

Vergil's  Eclogues,  i.  28. 

IN  less  than  a  single  generation  of  mankind  the 
French  people  were  transformed ;  comparing  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  with  the  opening  of 
the  nineteenth,  French  society  was  in  that  short  space  of 
time  almost  transfigured.  It  was  a  pardonable  exag- 
geration with  which  in  1795  Boissy  d'Anglas  exclaimed 
''We  have  lived  six  centuries  in  six  years."  The 
French  nation  was  alreadyold  when  the  epoch  displayed 
its  first  phase ;  and,  as  the  Latin  poet  has  expressed  his 
thought  in  a  curious  parallel,  while  sporting  with  its 
fellows  in  the  thraldom  of  feudalism,  its  ''hair  began 
to  fall  gray  under  the  shears"  before  it  gained  its  mod- 
ern liberty.  The  Revolution,  therefore,  when  it  did 
come,  was  quite  sure  to  be  as  it  was,  both  hasty  and 
thorough;  in  consequence  there  was  no  smooth  trans- 
formation, but  instead  there  were  the  roar  and  crash, 
the  turmoil  and  dust  of  ruin.  The  contemporary 
mind,  whether  alert  or  pensive,  found  these  outward 
and  sensible  appearances  more  interesting  than  the 
inner  processes  of  construction,  which  were  really 
more  noteworthy.  It  is  perhaps  only  now  that,  after 
the  subsidence  of  the  turbulent  agitation,  we  can  enu- 
merate the  astounding  results. 

xxi 


xxii 


INTRODUCTION 


In  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
old  famihar  things  of  the  eighteenth  were  already  afar 
off.  The  names  of  provinces  hoary  with  age  survived, 
but  as  memories  only;  feudalism,  still  rampant  in  1780, 
seemed  in  18 10  to  have  been  a  nightmare  that  had  van- 
ished with  the  dawn;  mediasvalism  had  been  exorcised 
like  an  evil  spirit ;  titles  of  ancient  nobility  still  tripped 
over  men's  lips,  but  as  honorific  designations  merely; 
the  real  distinctions  of  life  bore  the  names,  not  of 
French  landed  estates,  but  of  recent  battle-fields  and 
sieges  in  distant  countries ;  the  most  coveted  decoration 
was  the  red  ribbon  of  honor  controlled  by  an  imperial 
democracy.  There  survived  not  one  of  the  effete  social 
habits  of  France ;  every  human  interchange  of  relations 
in  commerce,  industry,  trade,  agriculture,  education ;  in 
the  state,  the  church  and  the  family — all  were  new  and 
different  from  the  old.  It  is  true  that  the  confedera- 
tion of  European  monarchies  which  momentarily  over- 
whelmed the  French  democracy  did,  a  little  later,  hang 
on  the  walls  of  Paris  an  obsolete  standard  to  flap  there 
idly  for  a  brief  hour.  Louis  XVIII.  but  served  by  his 
inglorious  reign  to  remind  a  fervid  people  of  terri- 
tories lost,  of  transitory  glories,  of  national  shame,  of 
an  antiquated  absolutism  revived  for  a  time  in  Europe 
as  the  expression  of  national  unity — elsewhere  in  real- 
ity, but  at  Paris  as  nominal  and  shadowy,  despicable 
and  hateful  in  the  popular  opinion  of  all  France.  Like 
other  cast-off  garments  and  institutions,  the  abso- 
lute Bourbon  royalty  was  destined  for  the  rubbish  heap 
where  it  now  reposes. 

This  was  the  radical  nature  and  these  were  the 
permanent  results  of  a  thorough  and  remorseless  revo- 
lution, justly  enough  designated  French  though  in 
reality  European.  It  burst  forth  in  France  because 
there  it  had  been  longest  in  preparation  and  there  the 


INTRODUCTION 


xxiii 


crust  of  conservatism  was  thinnest,^  but  its  causes  are 
remotely  traceable  throughout  all  Europe  and  its  in- 
fluences left  no  European  land  untouched.  The  rapidity 
of  its  course  is  the  riddle  of  modern  history,  and  of  all 
the  swift  transformations  which  it  wrought,  the  quick 
and  utter  disintegration  of  the  social  fabric  in  France  is 
the  most  extraordinary.  This  dizzy  movement  has 
hitherto  been  studied  from  various  sides,  more  particu- 
larly the  political  and  fiscal.  Some  efforts  have  been 
put  forth  to  examine  the  social  history  of  the  epoch, 
and  a  few  valuable  volumes  have  been  devoted  to  the 
ecclesiastical  revolution  as  such.  But  the  secular  ef- 
fects of  the  shocks  which  gradually  shattered  Ultra- 
montanism  in  France  have  not  received  the  attention 
they  deserve.  The  feudal  church  was  the  cement  of 
French  society  to  a  higher  degree  than  the  absolute 
monarchy.  The  overthrow  of  the  feudal  church  in- 
augurated the  modern  era. 

The  intelligent  observer  of  that  interesting  philo- 
sophic toy,  the  gyroscopic  top,  is  aware  that  its  nod- 
dings,  turnings  and  backings  are  due  to  the  composition 
of  forces  that  can  be  separated  and  described.  Never- 
theless what  actually  happens  is  not  w^hat  is  expected. 
Likewise  the  composition  of  forces  in  history  produces 
results  which  defy  prediction.  Revolutions  in  history, 
unlike  those  in  physics,  turn  moreover  on  several  axes 
simultaneously,  the  hidden  ones  being  generally  the 
more  important.  Not  until  the  social  history  of  the 
revolutionary  epoch  has  been  written  in  a  period 
which,  considering  the  intricacy  of  the  subject  and  the 
boundless  material  to  be  mastered,  must  still  be  far  dis- 


'  See  the  remarkable  predic- 
tions of  Mably.  Des  Droits  et 
des  Devoirs  du  Citoyen.  Paris, 
1789.  The  book,  though  writ- 
ten in  1758,  was  not  published 


until  after  the  author's  death. 
It  is  a  brilliant  examination  of 
contemporary  thought  and  ten- 
dencies. 


xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 


tant,  can  our  analysis  be  complete;  but  meantime  the 
experiences  of  the  French  people  in  its  religious  life  can 
at  least  be  outlined.  In  order  to  understand  them  the 
threads  of  one  certain  process  in  history  must  first  be 
caught  up  and  re-knitted.  The  ecclesiastical  condi- 
tions of  feudal  and  royal  Europe  were  basic  to  the  en- 
tire superstructure  of  fiscal  and  administrative  tyranny, 
which  disappeared  in  England  and  America  a  century 
before  it  vanished  entirely  from  French  soil  and  par- 
tially from  the  rest  of  Western  Europe. 

The  expansion  of  social  institutions  for  the  sake  of 
fuller  personal  life,  individual  and  collective,  is  clearly 
the  most  desirable  of  mere  earthly  things.  Slavery 
was  a  marked  advance  beyond  the  butchery  of  captives 
taken  in  war,  and  serfdom  is  a  state  infinitely  superior 
to  that  of  slavery;  the  winning  of  civil  and  political 
liberties  by  man  in  the  mass  has  lifted  the  race  to  a  still 
loftier  platform;  when  social  liberty  too  is  secured, 
when  justice  is  equitably  administered  and  human 
nature  approaches  perfection,  the  earthly  Utopia  will 
be  at  hand.  But  the  projection  of  even  the  most  ad- 
mirable institution  down  the  ages,  until  it  becomes  an 
anachronism,  is  intolerable,  for  it  checks  the  transition 
from  uniformity  and  simplicity  to  variety  and  complex- 
ity, which  we  call  progress.  Slavery  and  serfdom, 
though  once  absolutely  good,  are  to-day  abominations 
wherever  they  survive;  there  are  likewise  forms  of 
mediaevalism  equally  abominable,  to  which  men  cling 
with  fatal  conservatism. 

We  would  not  be  alone  in  thinking  that  the  single 
greatest  fact  of  secular  history  was  the  emergence  of 
Christianity  from  behind  the  veil  of  persecution,  not  as 
an  adjunct  of  the  empire  but  as  a  distinct  human 
power,  with  a  complete,  separate  organization  of  its 
own.    It  is  well-nigh  absurd  to  speak  of  church  and 


INTRODUCTION 


XXV 


state  as  two  in  the  heathen  world,  but  in  the  Christian 
world  they  never  were  and  for  this  reason  they  never 
can  be  one.^ 

The  single,  all  important  question  throughout  the 
Christian  ages,  from  the  day  when  Christianity  was 
recognized  by  the  state,  has  been  the  relation  between 
two  utterly  distinct  powers,  the  spiritual  and  the  tem- 
poral, each  claiming  its  share  of  control  over  the  indi- 
vidual man.  It  is  self-evident  that  this  relation  can 
take  only  one  of  three  forms :  the  temporal  authority 
may  control  the  spiritual,  the  spiritual  authority  the 
temporal,  or  they  may  endeavor  to  run  equal  and  par- 
allel. In  general,  Byzantium  represented  the  first  of 
these  three  relations,  Rome  the  second :  the  effort  to 
establish  the  third  is  represented  by  the  series  of  trea- 
ties known  technically  as  Concordats,  which  mark  in 
successive  stages  the  failure  of  both  the  other  plans. 
The  survival  in  some  form  or  other  of  each  or  all  of 
these  three  ideas  within  Christendom  is  the  stumbling 
block  of  contemporary  life.  In  the  nature  of  things 
we  ought  no  longer  to  consider  the  relations  of  church 
and  state;  our  attention  should  be  focussed  on  some- 
thing far  different,  the  relations  of  government  and 
religion. 

The  thirteenth  century  is  justly  regarded  as  the  age 
at  which  the  twin  systems  of  feudalism  and  Roman- 
ism reached  the  culminating  point  of  their  constructive 
work.  Thus  far  they  had  assimilated  and  guided  the 
intellectual  movement  of  Europe  completely,  benefi- 
cently and  almost  without  opposition.  But  when  Pope 
Boniface  VIII.  (1294)  reasserted  the  temporal  as  well 
as  the  spiritual  supremacy  for  St.  Peter's  chair,  the  gen- 
eral and  embittered  resistance  to  his  claims  revealed  the 

^  Sec  the  epochal  book  of  M.  Fustel  dc  Coulangcs,  La  Cite 
Antique. 


xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 


impotence  of  the  papacy.^  It  was  in  vain  that  re- 
course was  had  to  physical  violence  for  the  repression 
of  error :  spiritual  control  has  no  basis  except  in  volun- 
tary assent,  and  the  change  already  begun  was  only 
retarded  not  prevented.  Almost  simultaneously  the 
system  of  land  tenure  based  on  defensive  military 
power,  which  we  call  feudalism,  met  with  a  similar 
reverse.  Charles  the  Great,  Otto  the  Great,  and  the 
Crusades  mark  the  successive  epochs  in  which  Euro- 
pean society,  regardless  of  local  or  class  distinctions, 
put  forth  common  exertions  for  the  common  safety. 
One  and  all,  these  defensive  wars  displayed  the  im- 
potence of  feudalism  for  the  organization  of  the  im- 
pulses and  aims  which  were  common  to  the  West,  and 
which  demanded  a  political  and  social  system  com- 
petent to  realize  them  in  offensive  warfare.  The  care- 
ful student  of  history  can  remark  throughout  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  a  continuous,  spon- 
taneous, though  in  the  main  unconscious,  evolution 
of  the  forces  destined  to  overthrow  feudalism  in  its 
strongholds.  In  the  necessary  conflict  between  the 
social  and  ecclesiastical  authorities,  as  represented  by 
the  church  and  empire,  the  former  was  in  the  main 
victorious;  in  the  scheme  of  public  life  it  relegated 
military  force  to  a  level  beneath  that  of  moral  power, 
and  for  the  man  it  exalted  the  value  of  love,  charity 
and  holiness  as  the  aims  of  private  life. 

Amid  these  very  conflicts,  however,  the  ecclesiastical, 
theocratic  regime  suffered  its  final,  overwhelming  and 


^  There  is  a  striking  contrast 
between  Canossa,  where  the 
emperor  was  humbled  by  the 
Pope,  and  Anagni,  where  the 
Pope,  arrayed  in  all  his  eccle- 
siastical pomp,  was  made  to 
feel  the  rude  buffets  of  Sciarra 
Colonna,  and  escaped  with  life 


only  by  the  intervention  of  No- 
garet,  the  agent  of  France  in 
his  overthrow.  Yet  the  com- 
parison halts,  for  the  French 
monarchy  had  then  supplanted 
the  empire  as  representative  of 
secular  oower. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxvii 


irreparable  defeat.  In  its  struggle  for  supremacy  it 
had,  unconsciously  at  times  but  for  the  most  part  con- 
sciously, assimilated  feudalism ;  quite  unwittingly  it 
found  itself  doomed  to  the  fate  of  feudalism.  Abso- 
lute itself  in  the  assertion  of  spiritual  power,  it  stimu- 
lated the  assertion  of  absolute  temporal  power  as  made 
by  temporal  feudal  princes,  and  when  political  absolut- 
ism took  the  form  of  princely  despotism,  the  papacy 
with  its  ecclesiastical  absolutism  became  a  temporal 
power  itself.  But  not  of  the  first  order.  The  secular 
spirit  had  swept  humanity  with  it.  Principalities  be- 
came kingdoms  and  kingdoms  became  nations  and 
nations  became  states  throughout  the  western  world. 
Imperial  Catholicism  disappeared  in  the  disruption 
of  imperial  temporal  power.  Catholic  ecclesiasticism 
was  confronted  by  the  menace  of  independent  national 
churches.  Local  centralization  seemed  destined  to  re- 
place what  was  left  of  universal  centralization  in  the 
church,  just  as  it  had  already  shattered  the  universal 
state ;  in  the  political  crash  Rome  was  but  a  fragment 
of  feudal  absolutism  and  so  far  contemptible.  The 
Pope  as  a  secular  prince  was  but  an  Italian  royalet, 
elective  at  that.  The  close  of  the  fifteenth  century 
marked  the  end  of  all  effort  to  restore  the  pagan  idea 
of  unity  in  church  and  state.  The  question  ever  since 
has  been  one  merely  of  their  relations. 

As  yet,  however,  neither  feudalism  nor  ecclesiasti- 
cism had  met  with  organized  opposition.  This  was  at 
hand.  The  successive  revivals  and  reforms  which  con- 
stituted the  new  birth  of  humanity  in  art,  in  letters,  in 
religion  and  in  politics,  were,  each  and  several,  con- 
scious opponents  of  the  passing  social  phase.  Though 
disdaining  it,  they  were  one  and  all  forms  of  the  protest 
which  found  its  climax  in  Calvinism,  religious,  politi- 
cal and.  social.    Calvinism  was  not  merely  a  dogma; 


xxviii 


INTRODUCTION 


it  was  and  is  a  system  embracing  the  totality  of  life, 
intended  to  supplant  entirely  the  scheme  of  traditional 
authority  as  exemplified  in  Roman  and  feudal  society. 
From  its  inception  onward  to  1650  it  represented  the 
vanguard  of  the  coming  age.  It  attacked  the  hier- 
archy, social,  political  and  ecclesiastical,  with  the  sword 
of  the  Bible  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  con- 
duct. Shielding  itself  behind  the  buckler  called  the 
right  of  private  judgment  and  using  the  watchword 
of  reform,  its  battle-cry  was  the  call  for  a  return  to 
more  or  less  completeness  of  primitive  Christian  liv- 
ing. Its  chosen  style  was  "Reformed"  not  ''Protes- 
tant"; there  was  to  be  no  break  of  historic  continuity. 
But  its  recognized  enemy  was  the  theology  of  Rome  as 
central  to  the  whole  despised  system  of  religious  and 
social  tyranny. 

In  the  struggle  for  ascendancy  between  Rome 
and  Reform  blood  flowed  in  torrents.  In  France  the 
result  was  the  formal  defeat  of  Calvinism  .which  took 
its  revenge  in  furnishing  the  data  for  the  radical  phi- 
losophy of  many  among  those  who  suffered ;  in  Holland 
the  conflict  produced  the  political  liberties  to  a  new 
nation  emancipated  from  Spain,  the  land  which  under 
Philip  II.  represented  the  extreme  reaction  of  medise- 
valism ;  in  Germany  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was  ended 
by  a  treaty  which  recognized  the  rupture  of  the  Euro- 
pean state-system  and  established  public  law  not  ex- 
actly on  a  secular  but  at  least  on  a  political  basis; 
England,  with  elements  both  Anglican  and  Puritan, 
became  the  foremost  Protestant  power,  just  as  France, 
purged  in  the  furnace  of  civil  war,  was  thereafter  the 
most  intelligent  and  vigorous  Catholic  state. 


I 

REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION 


I 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION 


HROUGHOUT  the  eighteenth  century  the  critical 


X  spirit  was  abroad.  Among  the  Teutons  it  was 
largely  positive  and  constructive  because  successful  in 
reforming  every  department  of  life;  among  the  Latins  it 
was  negative  and  destructive  because  thwarted  in  the 
spheres  of  church,  state,  society  and  learning.  In  the 
north  the  social  movement  was  for  the  most  part  unsys- 
tematic, practical  and  adapted  to  local  circumstances ;  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  state  system  it  grew^  revolutionary, 
systematic  and  radical  in  almost  exact  proportion  to 
the  limitation  by  royal  or  ecclesiastical  authority  set 
upon  its  dimensions  as  to  numbers  and  permitted  scope. 
The  reply  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  to  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  to  the  Index,  was  long  in  coming  wherever  the 
reactionary  influence  prevailed ;  when  it  did  come,  it 
was  in  the  mordant,  defiant  language  of  Voltaire,  in 
the  appeal  of  Rousseau  to  an  authority  which  was  not 
that  of  Rome,  nor  of  God  in  his  Word,  but  which  was 
that  of  Humanity  as  represented  in  a  supposed  state 
of  nature.  From  this  destructive  criticism  emerged 
what  is  specifically  known  in  modern  history  as  the 
revolutionary  spirit,  the  central  principle  of  which  is 
an  extreme  and  perverted  conception  of  what  the  Ref- 
ormation called  the  right  of  private  judgment. 


3 


4  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


To  the  Catholic  the  Reformer  was  irreligious,  to 
the  Reformer  the  Revolutionary  was  doubly  so;  yet 
the  difference  between  the  two  latter  was  essentially 
one  of  degree  and  religious  attitude,  while  that  be- 
tween the  two  former  was  at  bottom  one  of  historical 
feeling.  The  Reformed  Church  gravitates  at  once  in 
any  moment  of  uncertainty  toward  Catholicism  rather 
than  toward  the  system  of  the  Revolution.  It  is  a 
question  of  accepting  or  rejecting  a  supernatural  au- 
thority, of  Theism  more  or  less  extensive  and  com- 
prehensive against  Atheism  more  or  less  radical. 

Bacon  and  Descartes  began  the  examination  of  the 
eternal  verities  in  the  light  of  reason,  compelling  the 
adaptation  of  Christian  creeds  to  the  truth  of  science 
as  far  as  discovered.  Hobbes,  Spinoza  and  Bayle 
mark  the  transition  into  the  narrowest  conceivable 
Theism,  discarding  alike  Christianity  and  revelation, 
setting  the  temporal  power  above  the  spiritual,  subject- 
ing the  Bible  to  the  same  rules  of  criticism  as  would  be 
applied  to  profane  literature.  In  Hobbes  appears  as  a 
philosophic  force  the  theory  extracted  by  a  Calvinistic 
reformer,  Francis  Hotman,  from  the  Bible,  and  destined 
to  become  the  dogma  of  all  political  philosophers  down 
to  the  threshold  of  our  own  time,  the  theory  of  a  con- 
tract between  ruler  and  ruled.  Used  by  Hobbes  in  the 
interest  of  absolutism,  it  was  remodelled  by  Locke  to  up- 
hold the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  and  in  the  same 
form  it  is  fundamental  to  the  institutions  of  our  own 
Revolution  of  1776.  Finally  Rousseau  revamped  it 
as  the  basis  of  the  extremists  of  1786  in  France. 
The  concept  of  sovereignty  in  the  abstract,  royal,  eccle- 
siastical, aristocratic  or  imperial,  formed  by  Bodin,  was 
thus  gradually  transmuted  into  that  of  popular  sov- 
ereignty expressed  by  majorities. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  number  of  thinkers 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  5 


who  busied  themselves  with  such  subjects  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  was  very  small.  But  in  the  eighteenth 
this  was  changed  and  the  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing produced  both  in  Protestant  and  Catholic  countries 
a  class  of  men  who,  with  the  spread  of  education,  found 
their  account  in  writing  for  the  press ;  men  of  science, 
of  letters,  of  philosophy  and  politics.  Destitute  for  the 
most  part  of  profound  convictions,  they  revelled  in  the 
play  of  the  intellect  and  deployed  a  versatility  not  often 
paralleled  and  never  surpassed.  The  type  of  this  class 
was  \'oltaire,  to  whom  nothing  was  sacred.  In  his 
hands  the  theories  of  Hobbes,  Spinoza  and  Bayle  were 
further  debased  from  a  limited  Theism  into  a  system  of 
vague  Deism. 

It  was  here  that  the  unprincipled,  uneducated  and 
unbridled  spirit  of  Rousseau  found  and  seized  the  rev- 
olutionary doctrine.  Sophist  and  vulgarizer,  he  was 
the  anarchist  of  the  epoch,  depicting  with  fire  and 
tluency  the  vices  of  civilization,  extolling  the  phantasm 
which  he  called  the  state  of  nature,  and  struggling  to 
undo  all  that  mankind  had  achieved  throughout  a  long 
and  painful  evolution.  It  is  likely  that  his  influence 
would  have  been  slight,  if  an  abler  man,  the  Abbe 
^lably,  had  not  introduced  into  his  Utopian  dreams 
an  historic  and  ethical  framework  sufficient  to  give 
them  some  appearance  of  reality.^  Voltaire  was  the 
prophet  of  the  Constituents  and  Girondists,  Rousseau 
of  the  Robespierrists.  The  former  cared  for  nothing 
but  emancipation  from  theology  and  ecclesiasticism, 
using  their  Deism  as  a  means  to  an  end ;  the  latter  were 
stanch,  convinced  Deists,  anxious  for  the  stability  of 
their  Utopia,  which  they  felt  had  no  foundation  except 
in  their  faith.    The  former  were  transitional,  the  latter 

^  See  Guerricr,  M.  W :  L'Abbe  dc  Mably,  moraliste,  et 
politique,  Paris,  1886. 


6  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


desired  to  abide  in  an  earthly  paradise  of  their  own 
making.  The  former  were  latitudinarian,  the  latter 
were  narrow  fanatics. 

But  what  was  considered  the  new  know^ledge  was 
not  complete  either  in  the  scepticism  of  Voltaire  or  in 
the  deistical  sectarianism  of  Rousseau.  The  Encyclo- 
pedia of  D'Alembert  and  Diderot  contained  likewise 
the  learning  of  the  Physiocrats  or  Economists :  to  wit, 
the  doctrines  of  Ouesnay  and  Turgot  as  expoundeci 
by  the  latter  thinker.  These  men,  assisted  by  the  hu- 
manitarian revolt  against  legal  torture  and  excessive 
punishment,  of  which  Beccari  the  Milanese  is  the  best 
known  exponent,  were  of  course  concerned  with  phi- 
losophy and  politics  rather  than  religion.  The  rising 
importance  of  manufactures  and  the  influence  of  gen- 
eral enlightenment  on  criminal  jurisprudence  were 
substantive  factors  in  the  social  and  political  problem. 
Great  as  Montesquieu  had  been,  he  clung  to  royalty 
as  a  focal  institution,  and  suggested  reform,  the  ne- 
cessity of  which  already  cried  to  Heaven,  along  the 
lines  of  the  English  constitution.  With  the  same  con- 
servatism Quesnay  and  Turgot  believed  it  an  easier 
task  to  reform  one  man,  the  prince,  than  to  change  the 
masses;  they  too  were  royalists.  But  nevertheless 
they  found  the  inspiration  for  their  appeals  to  nature, 
by  which  they  meant  the  nature  and  nature's  God  as 
described  in  the  Scriptures;  neither  in  Deism  nor  in 
Atheism,  but  in  a  clear  definition  of  absolute  right  and 
wrong.  What  they  said  was  not  new,  it  had  been  from 
the  beginning  in  the  consciences  of  men,  and  therefore 
in  literature,  both  profane  and  sacred.  Their  applica- 
tion of  it  was  electrifying  because  they  showed  how 
little  existing  governments,  hitherto  engaged  in  mak- 
ing war  and  consolidating  territories,  could  fulfil  their 
function  of  executing  justice  without  a  scientific  ex- 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  7 


amination  of  social  economy  and  the  enforcement  of 
that  justice  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  God.  Industry 
and  moraHty,  it  was  proven,  were  at  least  tantamount 
to  courts  and  armies.  This  attitude  of  mind  cannot 
justly  be  characterized  as  religious,  nor  can  it  on  the 
other  hand  be  stigmatized  as  essentially  irreligious  or 
sceptical.  But  the  Physiocrats  were  enthusiastic,  in- 
flexible, intolerant  in  a  rather  neutral  creed  and  almost 
as  violent  sectaries  as  the  extreme  radicals. 

It  is  utterly  impossible  to  determine  the  exact  pro- 
portions in  which  these  three  revolutionary  schools 
secured  adherents.  Theoretically  the  nobles  in  great 
majority  were  under  the  influence  of  the  Encyclopedia, 
advocates  of  reform,  social,  political,  religious.  The 
burghers  of  France  in  considerable  numbers  were  satu- 
rated with  Voltaire's  contempt  for  Romanism  and 
Rousseau's  scorn  for  monarchical  absolutism ;  in  the 
mass  they  were  for  overthrowing  not  religion  nor 
monarchy,  but  the  whole  ancient  system  of  alliance  be- 
tween them.  The  great  lowest  stratum  of  artisans, 
laborers  and  peasants,  was  simply  discontent.  Blindly 
aware  of  the  agitation  about  them  they  rushed  first 
in  this  direction  and  then  in  that;  now  royalist,  now 
democratic ;  now  Roman,  now  radical.  They  groaned 
under  the  inequalities  of  justice  and  legal  administra- 
tion, under  the  heavy  hand  of  the  monarchy  in  taxa- 
tion, under  the  tyranny  of  the  church  in  every  social 
relation. 

The  word  'Tnfamous"  with  which  the  writings  of 
Voltaire  abound  does  not  appear  to  connote  any  of  the 
ideas  so  continually  attached  to  it  by  the  orthodox. 
It  is  not  Romanism,  nor  Christ,^  nor  Christianity,  nor 

'  There  is,  I  think,  but  a  sin-  spelled  in  full  because  of  an  in- 
gle instance  in  Voltaire's  writ-  tervening  modifier,  and  in  that 
ings — viz.,  in  one  of  his  letters  instance  the  article  is  feminine. 
— where  the  definite  article  is  This  would  seem  to  indicate 


8  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  church,  which  Voltaire  designates  by  it.  Little 
as  he  respected  any  or  all  of  these,  he  had  in  mind  the 
real  and  absolute  tyranny  secured  by  a  union  of  secu- 
lar and  ecclesiastical  power.  We  wonder  whether  the 
perfect  adaptability  of  Romanism  to  each  and  every 
form  of  human  government  is  its  merit  or  its  fault ;  the 
fact  is  certain,  and  the  identification  of  the  two  pow- 
ers which  was  complete  in  the  heathen  world  was  at- 
tempted with  a  degree  of  success  so  high  that  it  was 
not  far  from  complete  under  the  last  three  Louises  in 
France.  Under  it  there  was  no  personal  liberty,  no 
equality  of  civil  or  political  rights,  least  of  all  the  fra- 
ternity which  is  central  to  the  teachings  of  Christianity. 
The  bloody  centuries  of  Roman  decadence  were  con- 
sequently the  only  ones  remembered,  while  those  in 
which  the  many  and  splendid  services  of  the  church  il- 
luminated history  were  forgotten.  The  miasmatic 
lights  of  a  rationalistic  philosophy  were  chosen  by  revo- 
lutionists to  be  substituted  for  the  ideals  of  Christian- 
ity, petty  expediency  for  comprehensive  morality,  the 
despotism  of  secular  power  for  the  systematic  tyranny 
of  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy. 

The  state  of  society  in  France  about  1 786  was  there- 
fore indescribably  complex  from  the  irreligious  as  well 


the  personification  of  a  system 
by  the  phrase  L'Infame,  al- 
though of  course  it  is  merely  a 
slight  bit  of  evidence  corrobo- 
rating a  general  impression. 
In  the  Henriade  he  seems  to 
give  his  real  estimate  of  a  true 
church  in  the  well-known 
words : 

L'Eglise  toujours  une,  et  partout  ^tendue, 
Libre,  mais  sous  un  chef,  adorant  en  tout 
lieu 

Dans  le  bonheur  des  Saints  la  grandeur 

de  son  Dieu, 
Le  Christ,  de  nos  peches  victime  renais- 

sante, 


De  ses  61us  cheris  nourriture  vivante. 
Descend  sur  les  autels  a  ses  yeux  6perdus 
Et  lui  decouvre  un  Dieu  sous  un  pain  qui 
n'est  plus. 

Finally,  the  strongest  proof  of 
our  contention  will  be  found  in 
the  general  tone  of  two  short 
pieces,  Relation  de  la  Mort  du 
Chevalier  de  La  Barre  and,  es- 
pecially, the  Cri  du  Sang  Inno- 
cent. Both  are  in  the  Moland 
edition  of  1883.  Tomes  xxv. 
501  and  xxix.  375,  They  were 
written  with  an  interval  of  ten 
years  between  them. 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  9 


as  from  the  religious  point  of  view.  There  was  the 
church,  outwardly  comprehensive  and  dominant,  over- 
whelmingly Roman  and  Ultramontane,  but  with  nu- 
merous officers  and  adherents  who  were  saturated  with 
Gallicanism  and  Jansenism.  There  were  the  Protest- 
ants, few  in  number,  but  powerful  in  resources  and  in- 
tellect. These  two  social  powers  may  be  reckoned  as 
conservative  and  positively  religious.  Finally,  there 
were  the  three  secular,  revolutionary  schools  of  Vol- 
taire, Rousseau  and  the  Economists.  These  may  be 
reckoned  as  radical  and  negatively  religious.  There 
was  no  stratification  horizontally  or  vertically  in  the 
nation  at  large.  Most  of  the  mass  was  inert,  much  of 
it  was  fluid,  and  there  w^as  a  portion  neither  one  nor 
the  other,  but  like  the  loose  soil  rendered  friable  by 
frost  and  ready  for  the  action  of  stream  and  flood. 
From  this  element  could  be  drawn  a  numerous  follow- 
ing for  whatever  movement  was  at  any  given  time  most 
active  and  popular.  Such  disintegration  of  the  lower 
social  strata  was  mainly  due  to  the  ecclesiastical  discord 
just  mentioned ;  the  factions  of  Jesuits,  Gallicans,  Jan- 
senists,  and  Protestants  were  savagely  embittered. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  royal 
conscience  of  France  was  itself  uneasy  and  oversensi- 
tive. As  the  ally  and  supporter  of  the  papacy,  Louis 
XIV.  fell  on  evil  days.  The  reforming  zeal  of  Inno- 
cent XL  had  spread  into  France,  and  some  of  the 
bishops  contested  the  claim  of  the  crown  to  name 
candidates  for  vacant  livings,  or  to  administer  any  ec- 
clesiastical revenues  whatsoever,  even  those  recently 
endowed  by  secular  authority  during  episcopal  inter- 
regnums. Determined  to  overthrow  nepotism  and 
simony,  the  Pope  went  so  far  as  openly  to  attack  the 
secular  power,  by  withdrawing  from  the  French  and 
other  enibassies  at  Rome  the  cherished  right  of  asy- 


10         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


lum.  The  king  threatened  rupture;  the  clergy  and 
nobles,  assembled  at  Paris  in  1682,  formulated  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  national  church,  and  these  were  promul- 
gated by  royal  ordinance.  They  were  the  expression 
of  the  religious  consciousness  and  convictions  of 
France,  viz. :  that  the  popes  had  divine  authority  in 
spiritual  but  not  secular  affairs,  that  even  this  was 
limited  both  by  the  conclusions  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance regarding  the  powers  of  general  councils,  and 
by  the  prescriptions  and  usages  of  the  Gallican  Church ; 
finally  that  without  the  sanction  of  the  church  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Pope  are  not  infallible.  While  these 
four  propositions  were  revoked  under  an  agreement 
with  Innocent  XIL,  and  by  pressure  from  the  cour- 
tiers and  Jesuits  who  controlled  court  opinion,  they 
represented  then,  and  continue  to  represent,  the  attitude 
of  an  immense  number  of  devout  but  enlightened  Ro- 
man Catholics  in  France.  The  Gallican  movement 
had  numerous  adherents  throughout  the  eighteenth 
century,  being  in  some  respects  unusually  powerful  in 

1789. 

The  earlier  years  of  that  century  marked  the  climax 
and  incipient  decline  of  the  absolute  monarchy.  Rich 
and  intelligent,  both  court  and  society  in  France  salved 
the  wounds  to  their  pride,  which  had  been  inflicted 
through  their  military  and  diplomatic  reverses,  by  the 
practice  of  a  voluptuous  sestheticism.  Their  religious 
confessors  were  in  the  main  Jesuits.  Their  tendencies 
were  consequently  Ultramontane  for  the  most  part. 
Yet  the  splendid  intellects  of  the  time  were  sternly 
logical  rather  than  authoritarian,  and  while  some  like 
Fenelon,  IMassillon,  and  Bossuet  knew  how  with  sweet 
reasonableness  to  steer  the  middle  course,  yet  even  they 
were  Gallican  at  heart.  The  'Telemaque"  of  Fenelon 
was  a  protest  against  Jesuit  education,  and  cost  its 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  ii 


apostolic  author  his  banishment  from  court.  Bossuet 
was  GalHcan  in  the  king's  behalf,  but  Ultramontane  in 
his  attitude  toward  the  Protestants;  such  were  the 
splendor  of  his  style,  the  beauty  of  his  thought  and  the 
pathos  of  his  mental  attitude  that  his  ingenuity  as  a 
trimmer  passed  almost  unobserved. 

There  was  one  manifestation  of  the  religious  tem- 
perament which  must  be  recalled  as  a  movement  similar 
yet  apart,  that  of  the  Jansenists.  The  concept  of  per- 
fect human  freedom,  as  realized  only  in  dependence  on 
God,  had  in  the  early  church  produced  the  antipodal 
conclusions  of  Pelagius  and  Augustine :  that  men  un- 
corrupted  in  Adam's  fall  might  by  the  exercise  of  their 
own  wills  become  the  subjects  of  divine  grace,  that 
Adam's  fall  produced  infinite  guilt  which  could  be  re- 
lieved only  by  divine  grace  prevenient  and  predestined 
for  some  but  not  necessarily  for  all.  The  Jesuits  were 
from  the  outset  characterized  by  intellectual  versatility 
rather  than  profundity.  Nominally  vassal  to  the  papal 
see,  they  were  as  really  its  master  as  the  feudatory 
Charles  of  Burgundy  was  once  the  superior  of  his  tech- 
nical suzerain  Louis  XL  Devoted  to  the  furtherance 
of  Christian  life,  they  were  in  foreign  lands  successful 
missionaries,  because  of  adroitness  and  adaptability 
rather  than  in  consequence  of  fearless  assault ;  in  Eu- 
ropean lands  they  deployed  their  activities  as  the  edu- 
cators of  all  classes,  notably  the  great,  and  in  this  func- 
tion such  theology  as  they  professed  leaned  toward  the 
side  of  Pelagius,  while  their  peculiar  genius  found  its 
employment  in  a  casuistry  which  turned  the  moral  law 
into  a  supple  and  courteous  minister  of  both  the  states- 
man and  ecclesiastic.  Despising  consistency,  they  first 
rolled  back  the  tide  of  the  religious  Reformation  by  an 
appeal  to  conservatism,  and  then  completely  revolution- 
ized education  by  fearless  innovation ;  they  threw  their 


12         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


adherents  into  intellectual  subserviency  but  turned  scho- 
lasticism into  contempt ;  they  discredited  the  Inquisition 
throughout  enlightened  Christendom  but  established  it 
in  Portugal.  In  heathendom  they  displayed  still  an- 
other form  of  inconsistency,  for  they  subordinated  the 
effectual  conversion  of  men  to  the  interests  of  their  own 
corporation.  Intelligent,  versatile,  pure  in  their  living, 
the  Jesuits  discredited  the  older  monastic  orders  and 
rendered  contemptible  the  degraded  existence  of  the 
regular  clergy  as  Erasmus  depicts  them.  They  were 
invaluable  guides  in  every  form  of  government;  but, 
themselves  the  creatures  of  a  despotism  the  completest 
ever  devised,  they  had  a  natural  affinity  for  absolutism. 
The  kings  of  France  fretted  under  their  power,  but 
could  not  dispense  with  their  assistance. 

The  Augustinian  view  of  divine  grace  as  precedent 
to  human  freedom  was  focal  to  the  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  found  its  most  extreme  and 
logical  interpreter  in  John  Calvin,  a  Frenchman  of 
Picardy.^  But  the  ideas  of  an  infallible  Bible  replacing 
the  infallible  church,  and  of  the  God-man,  Christ 
Jesus,  as  the  sole  mediator,  replacing  both  the  secular 
hierarchy  and  the  Christian  priesthood,  as  alone  the 
prophet,  the  priest,  and  the  king,  were  intolerable  to 
the  great  middle  classes  of  Romanism,  though  most 
welcome  to  vast  numbers  of  the  aristocracy.  It  was 
Jansen,  the  Dutch  bishop  of  Ypres,  whose  ''Augus- 
tinus,"  appearing  posthumously  in  1640,  set  forth  a 
system  of  fourth-century  theology  seemingly  adapted 
to  those  who  wished  to  remain  within  the  precincts  of 


^  James  Russell  Lowell  has 
an  interesting  parallel,  in  his 
essay  on  Dante,  between  the 
political  philosophy  of  Augiis- 
tinians  in  the  thirteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries:  Dante's 


People  not  for  the  King,  but 
the  King  for  the  People;  Cal- 
vin's Possible  to  conceive  a 
people  without  a  prince,  but 
not  a  prince  without  a  people. 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  13 


the  Roman  Church.  Rejecting  papal  infallibiHty, 
the  dominant  dogma  at  Rome,  Jansenism  accepted 
tlie  authority  of  the  ecclesiastical  councils,  and  em- 
phasized the  high  view  of  election.  Innocent  X,  con- 
demned the  system  in  1653;  a  long,  embittered  quarrel 
ensued  and  even  the  bull  "Unigenitus"  of  Clement 
XL,  issued  in  1713,  created  only  the  semblance  of  a 
peace. 

In  the  assurance  of  their  own  election  the  Jansenists 
felt  themselves  to  be  a  spiritual  aristocracy,  fitly  and 
naturally  allied  with  the  secular  nobility.  In  this  way 
at  the  very  outset  they  became  the  supporters  of  Cardi- 
nal de  Retz  and  made  an  irretrievable  misstep  in  poli- 
tics. Socially  they  gave  an  example  of  austerity  at  Port 
Royal,  impossible  of  attainment  by  society  at  large,  and 
their  immediate  influence  w^as  insignificant.  But  in  the 
permanent,  enduring,  unshaken  forces  of  French  life 
they  have  a  name  to  shine ;  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  claims 
as  its  own  the  combined  renown  of  Pascal,  Corneille,De 
Sevigne,  and  La  Rochefoucauld,  but  one  and  all  these 
Olympians  were  the  stern  opponents  of  the  royal  policy, 
both  religious  and  political.  It  was  by  the  immortal 
literature  of  philosophy,  poesy,  satire,  and  wit  that  Jan- 
senism survived  as  a  vital  force  in  national  life,  and 
sustained  the  Gallican  party  in  the  Roman  Church 
throughout  the  years  which  were  the  seed-plot  of  the 
Revolution.  Persecuted  as  they  were,  mighty  names 
were  yet  associated  with  them;  names  like  those  of 
the  chancellor  Pontchartrain  or  the  splendid  procura- 
tor Henri  d'Aguesseau;  and  no  less  a  personage  than 
Noailles,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  protected  them.  The 
abolition  and  razing  of  Port  Royal,  the  persecution  and 
exile  of  its  adherents,  the  fulminations  of  the  papal  see 
alike  failed  in  their  end ;  when  the  Regency  succeeded, 
Jansenism  took  a  new  lease  of  life.    There  was  such  a 


14         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


revival  of  Gallicanism  that  men  on  both  sides  of  the 
Straits  of  Dover  talked  of  uniting  the  Gallicans  and 
Anglicans  to  resist  papal  usurpations. 

The  political  influence  of  the  Gallicans  had  reached 
by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  proportions 
that  were  little  short  of  portentous.  The  bull  ''Uni- 
genitus"  or  the  Constitution,  as  it  was  generally  called, 
was  really  the  work  of  Letellier,  Jesuit  confessor  of  the 
king,  and  emanating  from  a  French  prelate  was  a 
measure  grateful  only  to  the  higher  clergy.  Never- 
theless the  lower  priesthood  and  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple dumbly  accepted  it  by  the  force  of  habitual  obedi- 
ence to  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy. 

Yet,  though  the  Constitutionists  were  the  more  nu- 
merous, those  opposed  were  many ;  and  on  their  side  as 
opposed  to  the  new  constitution  of  the  papacy  for 
France  was  what  may  be  called,  with  some  strain  on 
the  word,  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  country  itself. 
According  to  the  ancient  custom  and  manner  there  still 
remained  one  powerful  check  on  the  royal  despotism, 
the  parlements  or  courts  of  justice,  and  that  of  Paris 
was  easily  the  most  important  of  them  all.  What  with 
the  persecution  of  Protestants  and  Jansenists  by  a  royal 
absolutism  under  Jesuit  influence,  and  the  exorbitant 
taxation  incident  to  court  extravagance,  and  the  extor- 
tions of  the  higher  clergy,  the  scarcely  suppressed  and 
widespread  discontent  at  last  found  vent  in  1752, 
through  a  decree  of  the  Paris  parlemcnt  forbidding  the 
outrageous  but  common  practice  of  refusing  the  sacra- 
ments to  those  who  denied  the  authority  of  the  papal 
bull.  This  was  a  home  thrust  at  the  legislative  power 
of  the  crown,  and  in  1753  the  parlement  was  banished.^ 

*  Isambert,    Anciennes    Lois  historique   et   anecdotique  du 

XXII.,  251.    D'Argenson,  Me-  regne   de   Louis   XV.,  Paris, 

moires,  Paris,  1857,  I.  Ixxviii.  1851,  IV.  465. 
civ.,  V.  215.    Barbier,  Journal 


REFORM  AND  REVOLUTION  15 


Nowhere  were  the  Jansenists  stronger  than  in  the  guild 
of  lawyers  and  the  provincial  parlcments  followed  the 
lead  thus  given.  There  was  a  sudden  outburst  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  guardians  of  French  custom  far  and 
near  throughout  the  land.  There  were  even  assertions 
of  weight  that  the  nation  was  above  its  kings.^  It  was 
clear  that  a  popular  upheaval  was  possible  and  prob- 
able; the  Paris  parlement  therefore  was  recalled  on  its 
own  terms  and  the  clergy  suffered  for  their  contumacy. 
When,  four  years  later,  in  1756,  the  king  declared  his 
Grand  Council  to  be  sovereign,  the  parlement  of  Paris 
again  defied  him  and  promulgated  a  measure  delimiting 
sharply  the  powers  of  the  Grand  Council.  The  third 
clash  was  even  more  violent.  A  month  later  began  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  the  king  by  edict  ordered  new  taxes, 
the  parlement  refused  to  register  the  edict  as  law  and  it 
was  abolished  in  December.^  But  the  absolute  author- 
ity of  the  crown  proved  to  be  merely  nominal,  for  with- 
out the  action  of  the  parlenients  not  a  sou  of  the  taxes 
could  be  collected,  and  three  months  later  the  recalci- 
trant court  was  restored.  In  truth  public  opinion  was 
irresistible  and  by  it  both  parlement  and  army  were 
controlled.  Not  only  could  no  taxes  be  collected,  but, 
.  what  was  vastly  more  important  in  war  time,  no  loans 
could  be  placed  without  the  security,  more  moral  than 
real  it  must  be  confessed,  of  a  judicial  registration.  It 
was  the  Ultramontane  clergy  driven  to  bay,  which,  as 
early  as  1750,  began  to  recall  the  fact  that  once  there 
were  estates  of  the  realm,  and  to  demand  their  assem- 
bling in  order  to  substitute  a  more  pliant  power  in 
the  representation  of  popular  rights  and  public  opinion 
for  the  stern,  sturdy  Jansenistic  parlenients.^  The 

*  Barbier,  Journal  Historique,        '  D'Argenson,  VIII.  247.  Bar- 
etc,  IV.  4.24,  V.  28,  238.  bier,  IV.  22. 

^  Barbier,  V.  163  ct  seq. 


i6         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


grandes  remontranccs,  the  bitter  protests  of  the  lat- 
ter, were  too  legal,  too  correct,  too  terse,  too  his- 
torical, to  be  longer  endured.  The  Estates,  however, 
were  not  called  until  forty  years  later,  and  when  they 
met  they  proved  more  obdurate  than  even  the  par- 
Icments. 


II 

VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  OF 
ECCLESIASTICISM 


II 


Voltaire's  indictment.      l'infame  " 

VIEWED  from  without  and  in  the  large,  the  eccle- 
siastical machinery  of  France  worked  fairly  well 
during  half  a  century.  In  spite  of  friction  between  the 
throne  and  the  Pope,  the  King  of  France  still  deserved 
his  title  of  Catholic  Majesty;  in  spite  of  the  wide  cleft 
between  the  princely  hierarchy  and  the  plain  parish 
priests,  both  professed  and  practised  obedience  to  the 
Roman  See ;  and  in  spite  of  the  extreme  divergence  be- 
tween Ultramontanes  and  Gallicans,  the  powers  of 
church  and  state  were  so  closely  identified  as  to  present 
a  wall  of  almost  impregnable  defence  against  dissent  or 
heresy.  This  alliance  made  no  pretence  of  mildness; 
the  sword  of  spiritual  and  temporal  authority  was  one, 
and  it  w^as  literally  a  sword.  In  an  age  of  faith,  excom- 
munication, entire  or  partial,  ecclesiastical  or  social,  is 
a  deadly  weapon ;  the  church  used  it  without  stint  for 
the  state,  as  the  state  put  its  police  system  without 
reserve  at  the  service  of  the  church.  To  be  orthodox 
was  to  be  a  patriot;  to  be  a  heretic,  Protestant,  philoso- 
pher, or  Jansenist,  was  to  be  so  far  a  traitor.  Thus 
thousands  upon  thousands  were  terrorized  into  silence 
and  compliance;  thus  throngs  of  the  truest  and  wisest 
were  sent  into  exile;  thus  the  dungeons  were  packed, 
the  headsmen  kept  busy ;  and  thus  the  scores  of  torture 
chambers,  with  their  hideous  apparatus  of  rack,  boot, 
thumbscrew,  and  furnace,  were  guarded  by  the  state 

19 


20         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


through  its  soldiery,  while  the  vaults  of  those  hells  on 
earth  resounded  with  the  groans  of  victims,  no  less 
pitiful  because  they  were  drowned  in  the  minatory 
psalmody  of  monks  and  priests. 

It  requires  the  free  play  of  a  well-trained  historic 
imagination  to  apprehend  the  horrors  of  that  despotic 
infamy  which  as  so  constituted  Voltaire  insisted  should 
be  crushed  out.  The  latest  agreement  nominally  in 
force  between  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  France  was 
the  Bologna  Concordat  of  1516  (Francis  I.  and  Leo 
X.),  which,  as  has  been  explained,  balanced  so  evenly 
the  powers  of  church  and  state  that  the  latter  was 
scarcely  distinguishable  in  its  authority  from  the  for- 
mer. Wise  men  within  the  hierarchy  fretted  and  chafed 
without  ceasing  under  the  bonds  of  a  control  from 
beyond  the  Alps,  and  it  was  Bossuet  himself  who  led 
what  is  variously  styled  the  Cismontane,  national,  or 
Gallican  movement  of  1682,  an  agitation  which  mate- 
rially enlarged  the  king's  rights  in  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs (regale).  This  position  of  semi-independence 
was,  however,  abandoned  almost  at  once  by  Louis 
XIV.  in  his  dealings  with  Innocent  XL  during  1693, 
and  thenceforward  the  temporal  influence  of  the 
Vatican  steadily  increased  in  scope,  and  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  secular  power,  until  in  1764  the  Jesuits 
were  suppressed  in  France  as  within  a  short  period 
they  likewise  were  elsewhere  throughout  Europe. 
Their  fall  was  precipitated  largely  by  the  decrepitude 
of  the  order,  which  had  tumbled  into  the  pit  digged  for 
its  enemies.  In  Portugal  it  meddled  with  politics,  and 
was  banished  by  Pombal;  in  France  it  threw  itself  into 
financial  speculation,  and  the  ruin  it  brought  on  itself 
by  doubtful  money  operations  in  Martinique  carried 
many  great  banking-houses  down  with  it  and  brought 
on  a  panic.    In  other  Catholic  lands  it  was  suspected 


VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  21 


both  of  political  meddling  and  financial  trickery. 
Final  destruction  overtook  the  Jesuits  through  the  re- 
action due  to  Clement  XIIL's  arrogance.  He  dared 
to  excommunicate  and  depose  the  Duke  of  Parma, 
feeblest  of  many  foes,  for  limiting  the  validity  of  the 
l^apal  rescripts  within  his  duchy.  Such  was  the  gen- 
eral bitterness  throughout  Catholic  Europe  that  in 
1773  Clement  XIV.  issued  the  brief  abolishing  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  in  Rome.  Frederick  the  Great  and 
Catherine  of  Russia  gave  asylum  to  the  exiled  Jesuits. 
The  former  declared  them  the  best  of  all  the  priests; 
the  latter  thought  she  could  use  them  as  political  emis- 
saries. The  effort  to  revive  Hildebrand's  preposter- 
ous claims  thus  failed,  but  in  France,  at  least,  there 
was  still  left  under  the  absolute  control  of  Rome  the 
question  of  inducting  into  their  sees  bishops  appointed 
by  the  crown.  This  was  really  the  nucleus  of  the 
whole  matter.  A  bishop  of  the  old  monarchy  in 
France  was  well-nigh  a  reproduction  of  the  great  feu- 
datories known  to  Philip  Augustus  and  Louis  XI. ;  he 
was  a  person  of  enormous  influence.  Not  without 
reason,  he  was  defined  to  be  a  great  gentleman,  with  a 
hundred  thousand  livres  of  income. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Jesuits  in  France  was  speedily 
followed  by  that  of  the  Jansenists.  The  latter  fell 
into  a  disrepute  well  deserved.  They  had  degener- 
ated into  mystics  and  miracle-mongers  as  far  as  their 
feeble  religious  activity  extended.  But  their  true 
vigor  was  still  in  evidence  by  the  vigilance  and  vir- 
tue of  the  parlements.  Pompadour  and  her  minister 
Choiseul  had  measurably  favored  Voltaire  and  the 
Physiocrats;  they  saw  in  the  parlements  a  means  of 
postponing  the  deluge  predicted  by  the  besotted  king. 
But  when  Pompadour  died,  and  the  vulgar  Du  Barry 
reigned  in  her  stead,  there  came  a  swift  reaction,  and 


22         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Choiseul  was  disgraced  in  1771.  Philosophers,  poets, 
wits,  lawyers,  reformers  of  all  degrees  were  thrown 
out  of  court  and  the  parlcment  of  Paris  was  abol- 
ished, remaining  in  atrophy  until  Louis  XVL,  in  de- 
spair, recalled  its  members  and  reestablished  its  or- 
ganization. France  was  amazed,  but  the  anarchistic 
atheists  saw  another  prop  of  society  fall  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  lawyers;  they  jeered  at  this  new  discom- 
fiture, and  nothing  was  done.  Jesuitry  and  Jansenism 
were  both  ended  in  France,  and  in  appearance  two 
warring  factions  no  longer  disturbed  the  ecclesiastical 
peace.  The  men  themselves  remained,  however,  and 
carried  on  their  work  as  best  they  could.  The  organic 
church  lost  the  aid  of  both  Jesuits  and  Jansenists,  and 
without  any  adequate  intellectual  power  to  guide  it, 
was  compelled  to  face  its  destiny. 

The  first  element  of  Voltaire's  Infdme  was  the  privi- 
lege of  a  corrupt  church.  The  landed  and  vested  estates 
of  the  Roman  hierarchy  in  France  in  his  day  amounted 
in  capital  to  about  ten  milliards  of  livres,  say  about  two 
thousand  millions  of  our  money,  and  the  income,  in- 
cluding the  tithes,  though  most  disproportionate  to  the 
capital  according  to  ideas  then  prevalent,  and  ridicu- 
lously small  according  to  modern  expectations,  was 
still  a  hundred  and  forty  millions,  say  about  twenty- 
five  millions  of  dollars,  with  a  purchasing  power  at 
least  threefold  what  that  sum  would  have  to-day.  The 
total  of  the  clergy,  including  monks  and  nuns,  was 
over  four  hundred  thousand  in  1762,  having  dimin- 
ished by  1789  to  something  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
million.  These  non-producing  recipients  of  the  vast 
ecclesiastical  incomes  were  actually  about  one  hun- 
dredth of  the  population — a  monstrous  incongruity; 
and  yet,  in  spite  of  the  ever-diminishing  numbers,  they 
continued  to  consume  a  fifth  of  the  total  revenues  of 


VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  23 


the  entire  country,  a  shocking  and  patent  dispropor- 
tion. Had  they  paid  the  secular  charges,  both  those 
still  legal  in  1789  and  those  for  which  step  by  step  they 
had  received  dispensation,  which  alike  should  have 
been  collected  from  their  estates  and  revenues  during 
the  eighty  years  of  the  century  antecedent  to  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution,  their  just  contributions  would 
have  given  a  total  of  more  than  a  thousand  million 
dollars,  and  have  made  the  bankrupt  monarchy  rich. 
Such  were  the  numbers  of  human  beings  within  the 
limits  of  France,  and  such  the  sums  of  money  accumu- 
lated either  by  genuine  piety  or  by  clever  extortion 
which  were,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  much  under  the 
authority  of  a  foreign  potentate  as  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  native  prince.^ 

The  use  which  this  numerous  and  wealthy  corpora- 
tion, within  the  state  but  not  under  state  authority, 
made  of  its  enormous  power  was  a  sorry  one  and  mat- 
ter of  common  knowledge.  During  the  days  of  its 
wholesome,  uncontaminated  vigor,  the  church  among 
its  most  important  functions  performed  that  of 
almoner  to  the  poor;  it  was  the  organized  charities' 
association  of  medicevalism.  It  differed,  however, 
radically  from  what  we  understand  by  that  term,  for 
with  its  enforced  collections  it  granted  divine  grace, 
and  with  its  free  gifts  it  dispensed  human  sympathy 
and  religious  consolation. 

But  the  emoluments  of  the  church  gradually  became 


^  These  estimates  are  based 
upon  the  figures  given  by  con- 
temporaries of  the  highest 
character :  Dupont  de  Ne- 
mours, Chasset,  Polverd.  and 
others.  They  do  not  differ  ma- 
terially from  those  determined 
by  the  ablest  modern  writers, 
C.   Leouzon-Lcduc   and  Paul 


Boiteau.  For  the  original  doc- 
uments and  an  excellent  re- 
sume, see  Robinet,  Mouvcment 
Religieux  a  Paris,  1 789-1801.  I. 
209  ct  scq.  There  has  been 
acrimonious  debate  on  the  ques- 
tion, which  continues  and  seems 
likely  to  be  interminable. 


24         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


a  prey  to  unworthy  men;  the  court  rewarded  its  crea- 
tures by  the  grant  of  ecclesiastical  benefices,  the  ap- 
pointment to  livings  fell  into  the  hands  of  men  without 
faith  or  respect  for  faith.  The  ranks  of  the  clergy 
were  gorged  with  men  indifferent  to  every  ecclesias- 
tical interest  except  the  selfish  enjoyment  of  church 
revenues.  Not  less  than  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  mon- 
asteries in  France  were  commendams — that  is,  held  by 
some  courtier,  either  ecclesiastical  or  secular,  who 
performed  none  of  the  abbot's  duties,  but  used  the  reve- 
nues for  his  own  behoof!  The  secular  organization 
of  the  church  had  thus  become  utterly  recreant  to  the 
sacred  trust  of  the  poor,  in  a  measure  because  of  the 
neglect,  or,  worse,  of  the  priestly  hierarchy,  but  like- 
wise because  a  new  state  of  society  had  succeeded  to 
the  old  one,  in  which  all  the  conditions  were  changed, 
in  which  neither  laity  nor  clergy  held  the  old  views  of 
social  relations,  and  in  which  old  methods  were  worth- 
less. While  the  church  retained  all  the  sources  of 
supply  for  charity,  the  collections  and  the  bequests,  the 
foundations  and  the  income  derived  from  them — these 
moneys  did  not  even  measurably  reach  those  for  whom 
they  were,  intended.  Secular  opinion  now  recognized 
the  validity  of  a  new  and  revolutionary  principle — 
that  beneficent  use  is  the  essential  condition  of  owner- 
ship— and  demanded,  in  the  name  of  public  utility, 
that  the  state  should  expropriate  the  clergy  and  seize 
the  charitable  endowments.  The  result  of  the  agita- 
tion proved  that  the  clergy  had  no  valid  counter-plea, 
and  when,  in  1789,  the  crisis  came,  to  an  unexpected 
extent  they  themselves  assented  to  the  justice  of  expro- 
priating their  corporate  possessions. 

A  fifth  of  the  soil  of  France  belonged  in  1789  to  the 
royal  domain  and  to  the  public  domains  of  the  com- 
munes, a  fifth  to  the  burghers  or  third  estate,  a  fifth 


VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  2$ 


to  the  peasants  or  country  people,  a  fifth  to  the  church, 
and  a  fifth  to  the  nobles.  Hence,  in  addition  to  own- 
ing palaces,  chateaux,  convents,  cathedrals,  and  the 
richest  chattels,  such  as  pictures,  gems,  artistic  furni- 
ture, and  the  like,  the  three  privileged  estates — viz., 
the  crown,  the  nobles,  and  the  great  ecclesiastics,  to 
wit,  the  bishops,  commendatory  abbots,  and  the  chap- 
ters— had  in  their  possession  half  the  landed  property 
of  the  state.  Of  these  privileged  orders  that  of  the 
higher  clergy  w^as  the  most  distinct  and  the  richest. 
Accordingly,  the  second  element  of  the  national  infamy 
was  the  ecclesiastical  in  another  form,  being,  however, 
moral  rather  than  financial.  It  w^as  rendered  possible, 
nevertheless,  only  by  the  malversation  of  ill-gotten 
funds.  This  was  the  gross  worldliness  of  nearly  all 
the  higher  clergy. 

Exercising  its  vast  secular  authority  by  treaty  with 
the  crown,  the  church  furnished  to  the  crown  a  class 
of  courtiers  which  distinguished  itself  above  all  others 
in  the  qualities  considered  most  vicious  even  by  the 
crowds  which  haunted  the  antechambers  of  the  king. 
Cardinals,  archbishops,  and  bishops,  or  abbots,  all  alike 
were  not  merely  well  educated,  they  were  accomplished 
to  the  highest  degree  in  the  manners  and  mannerisms 
of  court  life.  At  every  juncture  of  affairs  they  in- 
sinuated themselves  by  their  charm  and  adroitness,  as 
well  as  by  the  ecclesiastical  authority  which  they 
wielded,  into  the  royal  closet,  and,  catching  the  mon- 
arch's ear,  secured  a  double  privilege — that  of  their 
own  order  together  with  that  of  the  affiliated  and  re- 
lated society  of  the  aristocrats. 

The  last  and  least  care  of  the  higher  clergy  was  for 
the  parish  priests  or  the  masses  of  the  population. 
They  donned  for  the  conflict  of  wits  an  armor  of  out- 
w^ard  form  and  splendid  ceremony ;  they  became  casuis- 


26         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


tic,  ritualistic,  and  formalistic  to  the  extreme,  setting 
beauty  above  faith,  tradition  above  reason,  prescription 
above  conviction,  form  above  content  in  all  higher  re- 
lations of  man.  They  were  as  frivolous  and  vain  as 
Voltaire  himself, and  often  as  atheistical ;  but  when  they 
entered  the  lists  with  him  to  control  the  use  and  power 
of  form  in  a  nation  and  an  age  devoted  to  form  he 
routed  them  utterly.  He  was  superficial  in  his  criti- 
cism, he  was  a  tardy  imitator  of  the  English  deists, 
he  was  ill  informed  as  to  historical  truth,  but  he  was 
downright  in  earnest,  and,  above  all,  he  was  the  su- 
preme master  of  style.^  Thus  when  ecclesiasticism 
threw  away  its  weapons  of  pure  religion  and  impera- 
tive morals  to  fence  with  the  foils  of  diction,  state,  or 
fashion,  it  was  predestined  to  utter  destruction  at  the 
hands  of  one  who  was  almost  superhuman  in  the  mas- 
tery of  all  three.  It  fought  with  his  own  weapons,  and 
he  was  the  mightier  fiend.  The  tilting  amused  many 
of  the  frivolous,  but  it  disgusted  most  of  the  wise  and 
good.  The  lampoon  is  harmless  when  directed  against 
the  innocent  and  true,  but  it  shatters  pretence  and 
sham. 

But  the  organized  and  militant  orthodoxy  of  Rome 
was  guilty  of  a  scandalous  and  shocking  infamy  in  its 
intolerant  and  persecuting  spirit.  The  three  most  fa- 
miliar and  notorious  cases  are  those  of  Calas,  Sirven, 
and  Labarre.^  These  are  the  classical  instances,  because 
they  were  particularly  the  cause  of  Voltaire's  fiery  in- 
dignation. John  Calas  was  a  highly  respected  mer- 
uit is  an  interesting  com-  March,  1761,  Moland's  edition, 
mentary  on  the  nature  and  Tome  XLI.  251. 
quahty  of  Voltaire's  mind  that  For  a  full  account  of  these 

he  could  find  nothing  worth     notorious  and  shocking  infa- 
while  in  Dante ;  he  stigmatized     mies,  see  Desnoiresterrcs,  Vol- 
the  Italian  poet's  imaginings  as     taire  et  J.  J.  Rousseau,  pp.  407 
stupidly  extravagant  and  bar-     et  seqq. 
barous!    Voltaire  to  Bettinelli, 


VOLTAIRE'S  IXDICT^^IEXT  27 


chant  of  Toulouse,  noted  in  the  community  for  his  pub- 
he  and  domestic  virtues.  Being  a  Protestant,  he  had 
no  standing  before  the  law,  for  after  the  revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  all  Protestants  were  technically 
considered  as  Roman  converts.  Galas  had,  to  the  best 
of  his  ability,  trained  his  numerous  family  in  his  own 
faith ;  one  of  his  sons,  however,  became  a  Catholic. 
Another  wished  yet  feared  to  do  likewise.  He  became 
a  gloomy,  dissipated  man,  and  ended  his  sad  career 
by  suicide.  The  sire,  then  in  his  sixty-fourth  year 
of  unblemished  life,  was  almost  at  once  charged  with 
murder,  the  motive  assigned  being  that  the  young 
man  had  desired  to  embrace  the  Roman  faith.  Popu- 
lar fanaticism  was  easily  aroused  to  fury,  especially 
when  the  Dominicans  erected  a  catafalque  and  dis- 
played thereon  the  skeleton  of  young  Calas.  The  un- 
happy father  was  condemned  by  the  pavlcmcnt  of 
Toulouse  with  the  formality  of  a  trial,  and  publicly 
executed  by  the  exquisite  torture  of  the  wheel.  This 
was  in  ^larch,  1762;  the  widow  fled  to  Voltaire  at 
Ferney,  and  at  once  the  fearless  old  man  began  the 
agitation  which  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  spe- 
cial court  and  the  reversal,  all  too  late,  of  the  iniqui- 
tous sentence. 

Pierre  Paul  Sirven  was  a  Protestant  notary  of  Cas- 
tros.  His  eldest  daughter  was  seized  in  her  home,  on 
an  order  of  the  bishop,  and  sent  to  a  nunnery,  where, 
under  the  efforts  to  convert  her,  she  became  insane.  In 
that  condition  she  was  returned  to  her  family.  Their 
care  in  shielding  the  unfortunate  was  falsely  inter- 
preted into  persecution  of  a  new  Roman  convert.  Ac- 
quitted by  repeated  official  investigations,  the  sorrow- 
ing parents  redoubled  their  cares,  but  the  girl  escaped 
and  drowned  herself.  Father  and  mother  both  were 
at  once  charged  with  infanticide.    In  January,  1762, 


28         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  entire  family,  menaced  with  worse  than  death,  fled 
through  winter's  snows  across  the  mountains  to  Swit- 
zerland. They  threw  themselves  likewise  on  Voltaire's 
protection.  Though  tried  in  absence  and  executed  in 
effigy,  they  too  were  acquitted  by  the  pleadings  of  his 
caustic  pen,  not  merely  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion, 
for  in  their  case  too  the  sentence  of  the  same  par  I  emeu  t 
of  Toulouse  was  reversed.  "Fancy,  fancy,"  wrote  the 
sage  of  Ferney,  ''fancy  four  sheep  accused  by  a  butcher 
of  having  devoured  a  lamb !" 

These  two  cases  are  fair  samples  of  how  the  state, 
under  the  intolerant  stimulus  of  the  church,  had  tor- 
tured and  shamed  such  Protestants  as  either  dared  or 
were  forced  to  remain  in  France  after  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  the  death  of  Colbert.  The 
whole  shocking  procedure  of  exterminating  dissent  was 
supported  in  the  name  either  of  the  police  or  of  poli- 
tics, from  fear  lest  Protestantism  should  increase  and 
menace  the  throne.  Bossuet  ^  gave  the  perfect  exposi- 
tion of  the  method  whereby,  withdrawn  from  all  re- 
striction of  Rome,  ecclesiastical  and  imperial,  church 
and  state  may  combine  perfectly  to  enslave  France. 
The  king  absorbs  all  temporal  power  and  property,  but 
gives  his  treasure  and  sword  to  extirpate  heresy.  It 
was  this  very  principle,  with  the  necessary  changes, 
which,  soon  after,  the  radicals  sought  to  use  in  monop- 
olizing everything  for  the  secular  power.  In  the  case 
of  the  monarchy,  as  all  the  facts  prove,  the  funds  of 
the  church  went  to  swell  the  benevolences  paid  to  the 
king  just  in  proportion  as  persecution  by  the  royal 
authority  grew  more  and  more  severe. 

But  the  case  of  Labarre  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
attempted  identification  of  Protestants  with  criminals 
or  traitors.  It  was  an  exhibition  of  the  fierce  vindic- 
^  See  the  Politique  tiree  de  I'Ecriture  Sainte. 


VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  29 


tiveness  with  which  Mother  Church  treated  mere 
naughtiness  in  her  own  faithful  children.  As  such  it 
had  much  to  do  with  bringing  the  sore  of  revolutionary 
feeling  to  a  head.  Labarre  was  a  chivalrous,  careless 
boy  of  nineteen,  who  had  been  raised  by  his  aunt,  the 
abbess  of  Villaincourt.  The  attractions  of  the  latter 
were  noted  by  a  worthless  old  rascal  whose  addresses 
were  disdainfully  repulsed  by  both  aunt  and  nephew. 
Brooding  on  revenge,  the  hoary  scoundrel  learned  that 
the  boy  with  a  friend  had  failed  to  salute  the  host  when 
carried  in  procession  through  the  streets,  and  as  almost 
simultaneously  a  great  crucifix  on  the  Pont  Neuf  of 
Abbeville  was  one  morning  found  mutilated,  he  insinu- 
ated that  young  men  who  could  pass  the  host  with  in- 
difference might  well  be  guilty  of  the  other  sacrilege. 
He  likewise  learned,  through  informers,  that  Labarre, 
while  in  his  cups,  had  spoken  scurrilously  of  Mary 
•Magdalen.  This  was  enough ;  the  court  would  show  no 
mercy  to  the  waywardness  of  youth.  The  boy  frankly 
admitted  a  drinking-song  referring  to  the  saint  before 
conversion,  confessed  the  carelessness  of  his  omission 
to  salute  the  host,  but  utterly  denied  the  sacrilege  to 
the  crucifix,  and  this  was  not  proved  or  even  indicated 
by  witnesses.  Yet  he  was  sentenced  to  the  rack  until 
he  should  confess  and  name  his  accomplices ;  his  tongue 
was  then  to  be  cut  out,  or,  if  not  extended,  torn  out  with 
pincers ;  his  right  hand  was  to  be  cut  off  and  nailed  to 
the  church  door ;  he  was  then  to  be  burned  at  the  stake 
by  a  slow  fire.  This  ghastly  sentence,  pronounced  on 
February  28,  1766,  was  based  on  chansons  ahominablcs 
ct  cxecrahlcs.  An  appeal  was  taken  to  Paris  and  sup- 
ported by  the  ablest  lawyers  of  France,  but  of  the 
twenty-five  judges  before  whom  it  was  argued,  fifteen 
rejected  it,  *'led  by  political  considerations" — in  other 
words,  intimidated  by  the  clergy,  as  was  well  under- 


30         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


stood.  These  politico-spiritual  judges,  however,  modi- 
fied the  sentence  in  so  far  as  to  have  the  martyr 
beheaded  before  he  was  burned.  Voltaire  now  dis- 
played all  his  resources,  but  the  sentence  was  exe- 
cuted. The  philosopher's  defeat  was  the  victory  of  his 
cause.  Men  did  not  forget  what  he  solemnly  asserted, 
that  "si  drinking-song  is,  after  all,  only  a  song;  hu- 
man blood  lightly  spilt,  torture,  the  penalty  of  a  tongue 
torn  out,  of  a  maimed  hand,  of  a  body  thrown  to 
the  flames — these  are  the  things  abominables  et  exe- 
crable s!' 

Public  opinion  was  momentarily  overawed  by  these 
horrid  cruelties,  and  the  process  of  exterminating  her- 
esy continued  throughout  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. 
There  was  for  the  dissenter  or  the  suspect  no  freedom 
of  speech,  no  right  of  public  meeting,  no  ceremony  of 
marriage  or  celebration  of  funeral  rites,  no  recognition 
of  the  commonest  rights  of  the  subject,  except  under 
special  favor  of  the  church,  until  after  the  accession 
of  Louis  XVI.  Banishment,  fines,  imprisonment, 
every  form  of  disgrace  and  sorrow,  were  the  portion  of 
all  who  shrank  before  the  infamous  tyranny  exercised 
by  the  union  of  secular  with  ecclesiastical  authority. 
It  was  not  until  the  ministry  of  Calonne,  at  the  time 
of  the  assembly  of  notables,  that  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  was  disavowed  and  true  tolerance  de- 
clared. The  edict  of  tolerance  was  issued  by  the  king 
in  November,  1787;  its  conception  was  due  to  Turgot, 
its  formulation  and  support  to  Rabaud  St.  Etienne, 
Malesherbes,  Voltaire,  and  Condorcet.  Lomenie  de 
Brienne  had  the  honor  of  presenting  it  to  the  king.  A 
year  later  the  States-General  met.  The  delegates  of  the 
church  were  instructed  to  demand  a  revision  of  the 
edict.    There  was  no  reparation ;  there  was  only  a  ces- 


VOLTAIRE'S  INDICTMENT  31 


sation  of  scandal,  which  in  such  a  temper  of  the  clergy 
could  not  long  endure.  The  flower  of  French  life,  ar- 
tisans, manufacturers,  aristocrats  of  birth  and  ability, 
had  found  refuge  in  other  lands,  and  they  had  no  in- 
ducement to  return,  for  there  was  no  change  of  heart  in 
the  ecclesiastical  organization. 


Ill 

THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION 


Ill 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION 

THE  three  great  principles  of  that  organic  union 
between  church  and  state  in  France  which 
brought  disaster  on  both  were,  therefore,  the  vigilant 
and  ubiquitous  tyranny  created  by  a  wilful  confusion 
of  temporal  with  spiritual  power,  the  monstrous  wealth 
of  the  prelacy  and  its  manifest  abuses,  the  persecuting 
zeal  of  the  combined  powers  of  church  and  state. 
These  three  elements,  as  we  have  tried  to  explain, 
working  in  unison,  produced  the  terrible  fury  personi- 
fied by  \'oltaire  as  ''The  infamous  woman,"  a  phrase 
reminiscent  apparently  of  ''The  scarlet  woman."  ^ 
Could  there  be  any  true  life,  religious,  moral,  or  intel- 
lectual, under  such  a  three-ply  cloak  of  infamy  as  this 
fury  had  forced  on  France?  The  stern  answer  is,  No. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  the  one  grim,  determined  resolu- 
tion of  strong  and  thoughtful  men  was  for  what  they 
understood  to  be  liberty. 

Liberty  was  in  no  sense,  not  even  the  most  restricted, 
to  be  found  in  this  unhallowed  alliance;  nor  could  it 
have  been  in  either  church  or  state  separately,  even 

1  "  To  the  crosier 
The  sword  is  joined,  and  ill  beseemeth  it, 

Because  being  joined  one  feareth  not  the  other." 

Longfellow's  "Dante:  '  Purgatorio,'  "  xvi.,  106-112. 


35 


36         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


though  it  had  been  possible  by  any  effort  to  divorce 
them.  It  was  not  Hberty  to  be  seized  under  the  un- 
controlled warrant  of  the  king  at  the  behest  of  eccle- 
siastical courtiers  and  imprisoned  in  the  Bastille,  miti- 
gated as  was  the  confinement  by  courtesy  and  even 
luxury  of  treatment;  it  was  not  liberty  to  be  falsely 
accused  of  murder,  under  charges  formulated  by 
monks,  and  broken  on  the  wheel ;  to  be  deprived  by 
force  of  money  and  goods  under  the  name  of  a  loan  to 
the  king;  least  of  all  was  it  liberty  to  be  subjected, 
under  the  pain  of  anathema  enforced  by  the  police  sys- 
tem of  the  state,  to  all  the  various  and  distinct  forms  of 
extortion  wielded  by  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Church, 
no  less  than  forty-seven  in  number. 

These  last  are  of  course  a  most  important  article  in 
the  bill  of  indictment;  they  may  be  found  carefully 
enumerated  in  a  volume  published  at  Paris  in  1790.^ 
Some  of  them  are  purely  secular  and  may  be  reckoned 
as  returns  for  immunities  from  exactions  by  ecclesi- 
astical feudalism;  some  are  forcible  usurpations  by 
church  corporations,  continued  until  finally  guaran-' 
teed  by  the  sanction  of  immemorial  custom;  the  major- 
ity are  systematic  demands  for  sums  graded  according 
to  degrees  of  fear,  either  for  this  life  or  that  to  come ; 
many,  alas !  are  of  a  type  too  debased  and  savage  to  be 
named,  connected  as  they  are  with  the  abuse  of  Chris- 
tian marriage  even  to  the  combined  sacrilege  and  besti- 
ality of  so-called  mystical  union  with  Christ.  No  ef- 
fectual attempt  has  ever  been  made  to  destroy  Rozet's 
credibility.  He  lived  in  the  very  epoch  to  whose  dark 
superstitions  he  bore  witness. 

Nor  did  liberty  as  a  cause  find  a  sure  refuge  among 
French  Protestants,  Calvinistic  or  Lutheran.  The 

^  Rozet,  Veritable  Origine  des  Riven  in  Robinet,  Mouvement 
Biens    Ecclesiastiques.     Text     Religieux  a  Paris,  I.  204. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION  37 


most  inexplicable  phenomenon  of  modern  and  even  of 
contemporary  French  life  has  been  the  persistent,  bitter 
hatred  felt  by  the  masses  of  the  nation  for  the  Protest- 
ants of  France.  Many  causes  conspire  to  produce  it, 
and  of  these  some  are  valid,  or  at  least  evident  enough. 
There  is  tradition,  a  mournful  heritage  from  the  reigns 
of  Louis  XIV.  and  XV.  There  is  race  antipathy,  for 
large  numbers  of  those  who  have  adhered  to  the  Pro- 
testant communion  in  France  are  of  Swiss  and  Alsatian 
origin.  There  is  the  difference  of  genius,  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  is  easy-going  and  imaginative,  yet 
home-keeping  and  hoarding,  while  his  Protestant  bro- 
ther, though  thrifty,  strenuous,  and  grave,  wanders  into 
all  the  earth  and  risks  his  savings  in  commerce  for  the 
sake  of  gain.  The  former,  it  is  doubtfully  claimed, 
begets  the  two-child  family :  it  is  certain  that  in  gen- 
eral the  latter  has  his  quiver  full.  While  this  charge 
could  scarcely  be  established  except  possibly  in  the 
great  towns,  it  is  true  that  the  Protestant  man  is  born 
to  public  affairs  and  exerts  powerful  influence  in  the 
state;  the  Catholic,  conversely,  seems  to  have  only 
local  interests  and  little  genius  for  great  organizations. 
Yet  these  are  not  sufficient  reasons  for  the  sustained 
and  bitter  animosity  which  is  a  lamentable  feature 
of  French  life.  The  main  cause  lies  in  the  mediating 
attitude  of  Protestantism  to  the  Revolution,  an  attitude 
which  unites  Radicals  and  Catholics  in  their  detestation 
of  those  who  held  it. 

The  secular  conflict  with  England  seemed  for  the 
mass  of  Frenchmen  to  draw  the  sharp  line  of  demar- 
cation between  French  patriots  and  all  Protestants ;  the 
great  French  Protestant  statesmen  of  the  old  regime 
leaned  in  their  ideals  toward  a  commonwealth  which 
was  at  least  as  aristocratic  as  their  Presbyterian  form 
of  church  government,  and  the  Catholic  king  therefore 


38         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


waged  relentless  warfare  on  them  as  hostile  in  politics 
to  absolutism.  The  right  of  private  judgment  was 
revolutionary  both  to  absolutism  and  Catholicism, 
while  the  firm  belief  in  God  was  prohibitory  to  every 
form  of  the  rationalism  invoked  by  the  Revolution  in 
its  extreme  form.  If  the  king  and  the  bishop  were  ter- 
rible in  their  self-defence,  the  societies  of  the  Red- 
Crests  (Huppes-Rouges)  and  Black-Throats  (Gorges- 
Noires),  which  were  Protestant  in  their  origin,  met 
infamy  with  infamy,  and  left  in  their  path  throughout 
southern  France  a  record  of  shocking  inhumanity  and 
abominable  massacre -comparable  with  the  excesses  of 
the  Red  and  White  Terrors  in  the  centre  and  north  of 
the  country.^  The  age  destroyed  moderation  and  tol- 
erance in  religion  even  among  many  who  had  them- 
selves suffered  shamefully  from  their  absence  in  others. 
The  martyrs  were  as  intemperate  and  fanatical  as  their 
persecutors.  Among  neither  class  was  it  possible  to 
form  a  nidus  receptive  of  either  moderate  Catholicism 
or  reasonable  Protestantism ;  and  in  an  age  of  fire  and 
sword,  wisdom  could  not  make  its  voice  heard. 

Still  another  element  in  the  working  of  Voltaire's 
infamous  system,  typically  represented  by  himself  as 
by  no  other  man,  was  what  has  been  called  and  in  a 
sense  is  the  classical  tendency  or  spirit.  The  enormous 
strides  of  natural  and  experimental  science  led  to  the 
determined  effort,  not  yet  abandoned,  to  apply  to  hu- 
man and  divine  science  the  same  or  analogous  methods. 
These  efforts  produced  the  scoffing  philosophers,  a 
small  school  at  best,  but  one  whose  influence  could  not 
be  measured  by  the  numbers  of  its  adherents.  Their 
stronghold  was  the  inherited  classical  spirit  which  has 
saturated  the  French  from  the  beginning.  In  the 
Greek  and  Roman  world  the  individual,  body,  mind, 
^Robinet,  Mouvement  Religieux  a  Paris,  I.  311. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION  39 


and  soul,  had  no  place  in  reference  to  the  State.  It 
was  only  as  a  member  of  family,  gens,  curia,  phratry, 
or  deme,  and  tribe,  that  the  ancient  city-state  knew  the 
men  and  women  which  composed  it.  The  same  was 
true  of  knowledge:  every  sensation,  perception,  and 
judgment  fell  into  the  category  of  some  abstraction, 
and  instead  of  concrete  things  men  knew  nothing  but 
generalized  ideals. 

This  substitution  of  subjective  for  concrete  thinking 
was  the  Roman  heritage  bequeathed  to  Gaul  and  to 
France;  Christianity  has  never  rooted  it  out.  To-day 
it  banefully  asserts  itself  in  all  the  political  and  institu- 
tional life  of  the  country.  The  science  of  human  prog- 
ress in  France  knows  nothing  of  perfecting  the  individ- 
ual man  for  the  sake  of  a  nobler  public  opinion  and  life ; 
but  as  a  pure  mathematic  its  units  are  abstracted,  per- 
iectible  humanities,  shorn  of  personality,  reduced  to 
the  lowest  norm  of  inclusive  homogeneity,  and  by  com- 
binations of  these  unrealities,  forsooth,  in  the  ideal  in- 
stitutions set  forth  by  constitutions  society  is  to  be 
regenerated,  progress  furthered,  and  a  monstrous, 
inhuman,  complete  automaton  substituted  for  man! 
This  was,  as  it  remains,  the  inherent  vice  of  what  in 
this  respect  we  call  by  their  self-adopted  name  of  Latin 
nations.  In  such  a  system  even  justice  is  abstract;  and 
if  concrete  personal  security  be  refused  to  each  man, 
how  much  more  vague  are  the  obligations  of  true  re- 
ligion, which  knows  no  organization  of  human  units, 
church,  state,  or  family,  in  relation  to  God,  but  only 
regards  the  individual  soul  to  be  saved,  recognizing  the 
three  holy  orders  of  church,  state,  and  family,  not 
as  ends  but  as  means ! 

This  classical  feeling  was  what  gave  form  to  every 
piece  of  institutional,  philosophic,  or  religious  raiment 
.donned  by  France.    Let  each  of  us  put  on  what  he 


40         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


may,  the  familiar  wrinkles  and  the  troublesome  hitch 
will  assert  themselves  in  due  time,  in  spite  of  all  the  tail- 
or's art,  and  the  constant  strain  will  distort  our  garment 
into  familiar  shapes,  do  what  we  will.  This  is  due 
to  what  we  call  nature,  and  classicism  has  ever  been 
the  nature  of  France.  This  distortion  is  easily  dis- 
cernible in  the  way  she  treated  the  whole  philosophy 
of  emancipation  and  liberty.  The  grievances  were 
real  enough  and  terrible;  the  remedy  sought  was  ideal 
and  unhistorical ;  and  they  called  this  phantasm  by 
the  sacred  name  of  liberty !  Liberty  is  a  thing  which 
in  its  very  essence  is  concrete,  personal,  spiritual,  indi- 
vidual; dependent  on  the  historic  evolution  of  man, 
not  socially  alone  and  in  the  relation  to  human  organi- 
zation, but  on  his  attitude  of  restraint  toward  God  and 
himself  and  on  the  moral  order  of  all  authority  in 
refraining  as  in  compelling.  To  the  French  mind 
liberty  was  either  license  under  a  hypothetical  law 
of  nature  or  political  equality  under  political  tyranny; 
in  no  sense  was  it  the  personal  independence,  compat- 
ible with  legal  and  moral  rights  and  guaranteed  by  a 
forbearing  and  enlightened  public  opinion,  which  is  the 
resultant  of  righteousness  in  the  persons  forming  so- 
ciety. This  Latin  concept  of  liberty  was  the  poison 
to  be  injected  into  the  veins  of  the  body  politic  as  an 
antidote  to  the  poison  of  the  prevalent  infamy;  organ- 
ized and  tyrannical  secularism  was  to  destroy  organ- 
ized and  despotic  ecclesiasticism,  monarchical  absolut- 
ism was  to  make  way  for  democratic  absolutism.  The 
latter  was  the  device  of  Rousseau,  it  was  his  passion 
and  his  fire  which  entered  the  soul  of  France  and  so 
moulded,  alas !  the  whole  Revolution. 

In  this  way  the  habits  of  the  French  mind  lent  them- 
selves to  the  spread  of  radicalism;  similarly  they  lent 
themselves  to  influences  of  another  kind  which  radiated 
from  the  lives  of  the  higher  clergy.  Just  as  the  radicals 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION  41 


by  the  force  of  their  pnbhc  virtue  sent  the  flame  of  their 
scorn  broadcast  over  France,  so  the  latter  consumed 
all  that  was  good  in  their  cause  by  the  scandals  of  their 
private  lives.  We  have  the  testimony  of  Mirabeau/ 
the  cautious  and  true  reformer;  of  De  Maistre,^  the 
Ultramontane  but  sincere  and  truthful  ecclesiastic;  of 
Montalembert,^  the  authoritative  historian ;  we  have 
the  pamphlets  of  the  sufferers  who  cried  to  Heaven  in 
outraged  violence;"*  we  have  the  confessions  of  the 
clergy  themselves  in  their  most  solemn  utterances,  as  to 
the  awful  abuses  and  scandals  prevalent  and  unchecked 
among  them.^  We  know,  not  in  part  but  fully,  of  their 
sexual  immorality,  of  their  unprincipled  self-indulgence 
in  luxury,  of  their  blasphemous  impiety.  The  affair 
of  the  diamond  necklace  is  incomprehensible  to  the 
student  who  does  not  understand  that  the  violent  out- 
burst of  public  opinion  which  it  caused  was  owing  to 
the  fact  that  men  saw  in  Cardinal  Rohan  a  typical  eccle- 
siastic willing  to  storm  even  the  queen's  chamber  in 
the  gratification  of  his  lust.^ 

Yet  there  was  leaven  in  the  lump  and  salt  that  had 


^  In  his  speech  of  26th  No- 
vember, 1790. 

*  Considerations  siir  la 
France,  Lausanne,  1796. 

*  Les  jMoines  d'Occident. 

*  Chassin,  Les  Elections  et  les 
Cahiers  de  Paris  en  1789.  Ar- 
chives Parlementaires,  L-VIL 
See  likewise  the  testimony  of 
Proyart,  Dorsanne,  Montgail- 
lard,  and  Desforges.  themselves 
priests ;  the  original  words  are 
given  in  Wallon,  Le  Clerge  de 
'89.  p.  493- 

*  L.  de  Poncins,  Les  Cahiers 
de  '89.  pp.  159  ct  scqq. 

*  It  is  well  known  that  the 
corruption  of  the  clergy  and 
the  corresponding  efforts  at  re- 
form were  the  highest  care  of 
the  church'  from  the  days  of 


Hildebrand  onward.  The  lives 
of  the  clergy  form  the  satirist's 
theme — Boccaccio. Rabelais,  and 
Montaigne,  Bayle,  Voltaire,  and 
Diderot  were  all  scathing  in 
their  denunciations  and  ruth- 
less in  their  scorn.  Their  ef- 
forts were  not  without  effect. 
But  there  had  been  ever-recur- 
ring relapses,  and  the  general 
conditions  were  no  better  in 
1789  than  they  were  at  the 
worst.  See  Darimajou,  La 
Chastite  du  Clerge  devoilee, 
etc..  Rome.  1790.  Dulavre.  Vie 
privee  des  Ecclesiastiques.  Par- 
is. 1790.  Manuel,  La  Police 
de  Paris  devoilee,  Paris,  1792. 
These  sources  are  quoted  in 
Robinet,  I.  in. 


42         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


not  lost  its  savor.  While  beneath  the  outward  de- 
corum of  the  hierarchical  clergy  there  prevailed  such 
indifference  and  vice,  while  the  monasteries  were  nests 
of  corruption  and  bawdry,  the  parochial  clergy,  separ- 
ated from  both  by  an  impassable  gulf,  exemplified  the 
highest  virtues  of  their  class.  There  were  good  and 
capable  bishops,  perhaps  a  hundred  and  twenty,  which 
would  be  the  majority;  there  were  a  few  uncorrupted 
abbots  and  conventual  chapters,  a  pitiful  minority;  but 
there  were  fifty  thousand  honest,  laborious  priests,  ear- 
nest in  the  care  of  souls,  who  were  illustrious  for  the 
purity  of  their  lives  and  their  faithful  performance  of 
duty.  Nominally  they  were  supported  by  the  tithes ;  in 
reality  a  high  official  (gros  decimateiir)  took  the  enor- 
mous sums  to  which  reference  has  been  made  and  doled 
out  to  each  a  petty,  insufficient  stipend  {portion  con- 
grue) — about  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year;  since 
they  were  illegally  deprived,  not  only  of  all  chance  for 
advancement  but  even  of  seats  in  the  church  assemblies, 
they  had  no  opportunity  to  introduce  any  reform  into 
the  system.  This  was  the  body  of  men  which  at  the 
outset,  by  a  considerable  majority,  cast  in  its  fortunes 
with  the  Revolution.  There  was  no  redress  from  their 
haughty  superiors,  no  money  from  the  vast  ecclesias- 
tical temporalities  wherewith  to  relieve  the  poor  or  for 
parish  expenses,  no  means  for  any  purpose,  in  short, 
except  for  the  scandalous  luxury  of  pluralist  dig- 
nitaries. 

Beside  this  practical  common-sense  virtue  of  fifty 
thousand  plain  men,  in  daily  contact  with  about  nine 
millions  of  other  plain  men,  there  remained,  as  we  have 
noted  in  another  connection,  among  the  thoughtful 
Catholics  a  very  substantial  number  of  Jansenists,  men 
saturated  with  Augustinian  theology,  bitterly  hostile  to 
Ultramontane  pretensions,  grim  in  their  fixed  resolu- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION  43 


tion  to  overthrow  the  infamous  alHance  of  Rome  with 
France.  The  constitution  ''Unigenitus"  (171 3)  hav- 
ing spHt  the  Galhcan  Church  into  two  warring  factions, 
even  the  crown  (Louis  XV.)  could  not  enforce  it,  for 
his  judiciary  {parlemcnts)  unexpectedly  arrayed  itself 
against  him  in  vindicating  the  majesty  of  the  law. 
After  an  embittered  struggle  of  sixty  years  the  extreme 
step  of  abolishing  the  pavlcmcnts  was  taken,  as  we  have 
said,  in  1772  (the  Jesuits  were  expelled  a  year  later), 
and  new  tribunals  {conscils  supcricurs)  were  created. 

Thus  was  arrayed  against  absolutism  and  ecclesiasti- 
cism  all  the  Jansenist  influence,  all  the  animosity  of  the 
powerful  lawyer  class,  all  the  statesmen  concerned  to 
find  some  working  compromise,  and  the  vast  number  of 
their  families,  adherents,  and  dependents.  X  moment's 
thought  suggests  the  powerful  Jansenist  families  of 
Arnauld,  Le  ^laitre,  Domat,  and  others,  as  identified 
in  feeling  and  interest  with  the  gens  du  robe,  and 
among  the  statesmen  it  suffices  to  mention  as  typical 
instances  the  influential  connections  of  men  like  Tur- 
got,  Necker,  Calonne.  Lomenie  de  Brienne,  and  La- 
moignon  de  ^Malesherbes.  This  combination  of  re- 
formers could  count  among  the  representatives  of  the 
Third  Estate  chosen  in  1789  no  fewer  than  two  hun- 
dred and  twelve  adherents.  A  sufficiently  homoge- 
neous company  themselves,  they  consorted  at  once 
with  another  which  at  first  glance  appears  altogether 
heterogeneous,  composed  of  sceptics,  Gallicans,  and 
the  parochial  clergy.  To  this  motley  company  flocked 
fanatics  of  every  species.  All  these  were  determined 
to  overthrow  the  feudal  status  of  the  church,  to  de- 
prive the  Pope  of  his  power  of  instituting  the  higher 
clergy,  to  secure  the  broadest  toleration,  and  to  sweep 
away  all  the  vast  temporalities  of  the  church,  which 
were  the  one  supply  of  religious  degradation. 


44         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Among  these,  as  among  all  the  thinkers  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  there  was,  as  we  have  elsewhere  re- 
marked, not  a  single  convinced  republican,  much  less  was 
there  before  1792  a  body  of  men  willing  to  be  called 
republicans  and  act  together  as  a  political  force.  But 
there  were  men  in  large  numbers  who  were  convinced 
that  the  character  of  the  monarchy  must  be  radically 
changed.  Voltaire,  in  attacking  ecclesiasticism,  eman- 
cipated thought,  and  almost  the  first  free  thought  of 
French  patriots  was  that  Roman  influence  as  the  basis 
of  the  monarchy  must  be  undermined  and  abolished. 
Criticizing  the  claim  of  divine  right  historically,  they 
concluded  that  the  king  was  not  above,  but  subject  to 
the  laws.  With  this  in  mind,  they  examined  the  his- 
tories of  the  more  or  less  popular  commonwealths  of 
Europe  sympathetically,  and  found  many  republican 
institutions  which  could  profitably  be  engrafted  on  a 
monarchy,  provided  only  it  were  not  ecclesiastical,  but 
secular  and  national.  Yet  whatever  the  various  de- 
grees of  republican  sympathy  to  be  found  in  Voltaire, 
Montesquieu,  Rousseau,  Mably,  D'Argenson,  and  the 
great  mass  of  legists,  physiocrats,  and  philosophers, 
they  were  one  and  all  dominated  by  the  conviction  that 
while  democracy  might  serve  small  communities,  and 
aristocracy  those  of  larger  size,  for  a  great  homo- 
geneous nation  there  could  be  only  one  possible  form 
of  government — monarchy  in  some  shape.  France,  in 
particular,  had  no  hope  for  its  emancipation  under 
equal  laws  and  institutions,  except  by  the  leadership  of 
a  king.  More  than  ever  under  a  renovated  monarchy 
the  ardent  French  could  cry:  "One  Faith,  one  King, 
one  Law." 

It  is  difficult  to  distinguish  the  elements  of  that  em- 
bittered hostility  to  the  church  which  is  in  evidence 
from  the  opening  of  the  Revolution.    Thus  far  it  seems 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  OPPRESSION  45 


clear  that  several  conclusions  may  be  accepted  as  cap- 
ital facts.  In  the  first  place,  just  as  the  infamous 
system  of  governmental  control  confounded  temporal 
with  spiritual  functions,  the  attacks  of  the  discontented 
were  aimed  at  the  existing  Ultramontane  church  as 
being  not  so  much  the  prop  as  the  very  foundation  of 
the  monarchy.  Secondly,  the  moderate  men  of  the 
upper  and  middle  classes,  having  long  cooperated  in 
the  resistance  to  a  monarchy  struggling  to  act  with- 
out the  parlcmcnts,  were  equally  zealous  for  a  republi- 
can monarchy  willing  to  base  itself  on  the  parlcmcnts 
and  act  only  by  their  cooperation  and  assistance.  A 
third  vital  consideration  is  that  the  historic  spirit  was 
awake;  the  parlcmcnts  claimed  to  be  the  legitimate  suc- 
cessors, first,  of  the  Merovingian  Parlementa  or  As- 
semblies, then  of  the  national  gatherings  under  Charle- 
magne/ and  lastly  of  the  mediaeval  estates.  It  was  by 
'the  use  of  these  claims  that  they  braved  the  crown  when 
yielding  to  Roman  influences,  forced  the  unwilling 
clergy  to  administer  the  sacraments  to  Jansenists,  de- 
nounced the  king's  principles  as  despotic,  and  made 
their  own  assent  or  dissent  determinative  of  the  na- 
tional credit  when  indispensable  loans  were  sought  by 
the  crown. ^ 

It  is  excessively  difficult  to  realize  what  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  nation  either  understood  such  matters  or 
was  even  in  the  slightest  degree  concerned  about  them. 
In  all  probability  not  more,  than  a  tithe  even  dreamed 

^  Charles  the  Great  was  sup-  For  an  opinion  of  their  nature 
posed  even  by  the  inlelHgent  of  and  value,  see  La  Republique 
the  times  to  have  been  a  liberal  Frangaise,  XXXIII.  349  and 
monarch  reigning  by  a  Teu-  455.  Caree,  author  of  the  ar- 
tonic  constitution,  a  false  con-  tides,  discusses  the  career  of 
ceit  of  which  France  has  never  Du  Val  d'fipremesnil.  and  in- 
rid  herself.  cidentally  exhibits  the  use  of 

^  For    an    enumeration     of  these  grievances  by  a  leader  of 

grievances,  see  Flammermont,  opposition. 
Remontrances,    etc.,    II.  447. 


46         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


of  dangers,  much  less  of  their  remedies.  It  is  not  won- 
derful, therefore,  that  the  reformers  of  the  first  stage  in 
the  Kevolution(censitaires,or  payers  of  taxes,  especially 
those  from  land)  dreamed  of  a  burgher  monarchy  lim- 
ited by  parlcments,  of  a  very  restricted  suffrage,  and 
of  a  national  assembly  representing  what  was  still  a 
minority  of  intelligence,  of  modification  rather  than 
abolition  of  privilege.  It  is  perfectly  natural  that, 
whatever  their  motives,  they  hated  and  despised  the 
Roman  Church  as  central  to  the  old  absolute  system,  as 
its  bulwark,  its  rock  of  defence.  They  never  dreamed 
of  Rousseau's  democratic  tyranny  as  realizable  in  a 
great  state.  But  the  masses  had  no  such  ideas;  they 
were  unobservant  and  habitually  faithful,  believed  and 
obeyed  by  routine ;  suffered  and  complained,  but  kissed 
the  rod,  and  considered  the  ironclad  regulations  of  fees 
and  formalities  regarding  baptisms,  marriages,  and 
funerals  that  were  made  and  enforced  by  the  church 
as  the  rough  places  on  the  otherwise  easy  road  heaven- 
ward. They  could  scarcely  distinguish  the  secular 
from  the  spiritual  administration,  for  on  the  latter  de- 
pended the  question  of  legitimacy  and  so  of  property 
succession,  real  or  personal;  this,  after  all,  was  their 
chief  concern,  for  their  lives  moved  within  limitations 
that  included  little  more  than  the  essentials. 


IV 

ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY 


IV 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY 

THE  destruction  of  the  Bastille  was  an  act  whose 
motives  were  very  complex.  As  has  so  often 
been  stated  and  repeated,  it  did  stand  in  the  minds  of 
many  as  a  reminder  of  hated  mediaeval  institutions ;  it 
was  a  fortress  in  the  hands  of  absolutism,  antiquated  to 
be  sure,  but  yet  a  fortress  and  capable  of  great  execu- 
tion against  unarmed  people ;  it  was  a  prison  to  which 
men  were  sent,  without  process  of  law,  by  the  arbitrary 
whim  of  a  prince,  a  luxurious  and  well-bred  jail,  but 
still  a  jail ;  the  associations  of  most  men  with  the 
name  and  thing  were  profoundly  unpleasant  and  dis- 
agreeable. Yet,  primarily,  the  attack  was  not  caused 
by  any  one  or  all  of  these  associations ;  it  was  a  simple 
measure  of  popular  self-defence. 

On  the  fall  of  Necker,  July  eleventh,  1789,  Paris  was 
deeply  moved ;  next  day  the  young  lawyer  Camille  Des- 
moulins  made  his  stirring  call  to  the  advanced  spirits 
who  used  the  gardens  of  the  Palais  Royal  as  a  club; 
there  were  clashes  between  the  king's  mercenaries  and 
the  inoffensive  but  curious  burghers  on  the  streets ;  the 
populace  took  alarm,  seized  the  arsenals,  and  assumed 
the  defensive.  At  Versailles  the  National  Assembly 
declared  itself  in  permanence,  applauded  the  liberal 
sentiments  ^  of  its  members,  and  enthusiastically  ex- 

^  For  example,  the  cry  of  archy  for  France,  not  France 
Mounier :  "We  love  the  mon-     for  the  monarchy." 

49 


50         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


pressed  sympathy  with  Necker.  Meantime  the  king 
had  formed  a  new  cabinet  in  which  the  Marshal  de 
BrogHe  was  Minister  of  War  and  commander  of  the 
forces.  Since  the  native  French  soldiery  had  for  long- 
shown  itself  disorganized  and  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  crown,  Broglie's  main  reliance  was  upon  his  nu- 
merous mercenaries,  who  were  well  armed,  well  sup- 
plied by  an  effective  commissariat,  and  trustworthy. 
The  people  of  Paris  found  itself  between  the  guns  of 
the  Bastille  and  those  of  the  royal  forces.  With 
shrewd  strategy  they  preferred  to  face  the  antiquated 
fortress.  There  was  a  bloody  storming  on  the  four- 
teenth, and  many  of  the  attacking  force  lay  dead  be- 
fore De  Launay,  the  governor,  surrendered.  Though 
it  was  probably  by  mistake,  yet  he  had  fired  on  the 
flags  of  truce  sent  forward  with  the  people's  sum- 
mons, and  likewise  on  other  non-combatants.  The 
furious  populace  judged  his  intentions  by  his  deeds, 
and  showed  him  no  quarter;  having  tasted  blood,  the 
armed  citizens  grew  irresponsible,  turned  into  a  mob, 
and  proceeded  to  further  murders  and  assassinations. 
With  dizzy  rapidity  the  initial  exploit  assumed  heroic 
proportions,  and  as  the  tale  was  told  the  interpretations 
were  prophetic. 

Leaving  aside  for  remark  in  another  connection  the 
political  and  institutional  significance  of  the  event,  it  is 
for  our  present  purposes  essential  to  recall  that  accord- 
ing to  the  expanding  legend  the  persons  who  overthrew 
the  Bastille  understood  the  significance  of  their  act  to 
lie  in  the  destruction  of  a  tyrannical  system,  not  merely 
in  the  annihilation  of  an  antiquated,  despotic  engine; 
whatever  they  may  or  may  not  have  understood,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  they  did  not  declare  war  on  the  founda- 
tions of  society,  least  of  all  upon  the  church.  It  was 
their  instinct  and  their  joy  immediately  after  their  vie- 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY  51 


tory  to  celebrate  solemnly  with  a  Te  Deum  a  thanks- 
giving service  in  the  great  metropolitan  cathedral  of 
Paris. ^  In  the  same  way,  during  the  ensuing  first 
period  of  the  Revolution  the  national  guards  conse- 
crated their  banners,  buried  their  dead,  and  deposited 
their  votive  tablets  before  the  altars  of  their  parish 
churches.  Preachers  expounded  contemporary  events 
as  the  realization  of  the  gospel,  while  officials,  civil  and 
military,  used  the  pulpit  as  a  platform ;  great  political 
meetings  were  continuously  held  within  consecrated 
walls,  and  no  person  or  class  felt  any  sense  of  inde- 
corum as  attaching  to  these  facts.  This  general  ob- 
servance of  religious  forms  continued  for  some  years. 
The  elections  and  assembling  of  the  States-General 
were  preceded  and  followed  by  masses ;  for  the  famous 
night  of  August  fourth,  1789,  devout  thanksgivings 
were  poured  forth,  and  in  February,  1790,  all  Paris 
took  the  solemn  oath  to  support  the  new  order.  Ca- 
mille  Desmoulins  used  the  columns  of  the  ''Lanterne," 
the  most  radical  of  journals,  to  reiterate  the  words  of 
Pope  Benedict  XIV.  that  France  was  the  kingdom  of 
Providence.  On  June  third,  1790,  a  gorgeous  proces- 
sion, arranged  to  represent  the  totality  of  the  nation, 
celebrated  the  festival  of  the  Holy  Sacrament.^ 

When  the  States-General  of  France  had  assembled 


^  Proces-verbal  des  Seances 
et  Deliberations  de  I'Assemblee 
Generale  des  filecteurs  de 
Paris,  reunis  a  I'Hotel  de  Ville 
le  14  jiiillet  1789.  redige  par 
MIVI.  Bailly  et  Duveyrier,  3 
vols.,  Paris.  1790,  I.  459.  Simi- 
lar services  were  held  else- 
where. II.  115.  In  Vol.  III., 
p.  96,  may  be  found  the  ca- 
hier  of  the  third  estate  of 
Paris  regarding  religion.  Per- 
haps the  most  interesting  para- 


graph is  the  eighth :  ''Ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction  doth  in  no 
way  extend  over  temporal ;  its 
outward  exercise  is  controlled 
by  the  laws  of  the  state."  The 
whole  cahier  is  well  worth 
study,  and  its  comparison  with 
the  civil  constitution  is  most 
enlightening. 

^  Robinet.  Mouvement  Rcli- 
gieux  a  Paris.  1789-1801,  I.,  pp. 
105-110. 


52         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


on  that  memorable  fourth  of  May  (1789),  a  day  so 
smihng,  so  sunny,  so  cheerful,  the  weather  corre- 
sponded to  the  temper  of  the  nation  and  of  its  dele- 
gates. The  French  world  was  full  of  hope  and  of 
enthusiasm,  expecting  the  abolition  of  all  personal 
misery  and  all  intellectual  discontent,  not  by  revolution, 
but  by  the  prompt  adoption  of  salutary  reforms.  Dep- 
uties of  the  third  estate  (661),  of  the  nobles  (285), 
and  of  the  clergy  (308)  all  had  their  instructions 
{cahiers).  The  enfeebled  religious  faith  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  was  still  represented  by  a  general  iner- 
tia which  may  be  called  the  habit  of  the  soul,  all  the 
stronger  because  it  was  a  spiritual,  not  a  physical  habit. 
With  this  the  fierce  and  eager  philosophers  of  the 
"little  club"  in  the  Cafe  Procope,  and  the  small  but 
intense  minority  they  represented,  dared  not  rashly 
tamper,  still  less  with  the  Utopian  enthusiasm  for  lofty 
institutions  and  pure  administration  which  animated 
the  whole  of  France.  The  religion  of  the  masses  and 
the  reforming  zeal  of  the  working  representatives  from 
three  estates  alike  prevented  a  theatrical  performance 
on  Easter  Day  as  late  as  June  second,  1791.  On  July 
thirteenth  the  National  Assembly  and  all  the  local  au- 
thorities, civil  and  military,  of  Paris  gathered  in  Notre 
Dame  and  gave  no  sign  of  dissent  when  the  preacher 
designated  the  Revolution  as  the  work  of  God.  Men 
still  struggled  cheerfully  to  follow  the  old  paths ;  they 
were  sure  that  if  the  thorns  and  briers  which  choked 
them  were  once  removed,  society  could  pursue  its 
course  more  easily  and  satisfactorily  along  the  beaten 
tracks  than  by  having  recourse  to  new  highways,  how- 
ever straight  and  broad  they  were  made  by  the  compass 
and  square  of  atheistic  reason.  Moderation  and  self- 
denial  were  therefore  the  order  of  the  day.  In  spite 
of  her  horrid  cruelties,  the  church  was  throughout  the 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY  53 


land  still  regarded  as  a  careful  mother  who,  with  gra- 
cious benediction,  was  holding  the  hand  and  steadying 
the  toddling  first  footsteps  of  the  nation  toward  liberty. 
This  is  admitted  almost  in  these  very  words  by  Robinet, 
the  latest  historian  of  the  radical  school. 

What  brought  about  the  swift  revulsion  of  feeling? 
Why  did  the  Assembly,  so  moderate  in  most  things, 
display  first  an  unintelligent  zeal,  then  a  fierce  reform- 
ing spirit,  and  finally  a  savage  persecuting  temper  in 
its  dealing  with  ecclesiastical  affairs  ?  Considering  this 
enigma  in  the  large,  the  answer  has  already  been  given : 
it  w^as  because  the  thinkers  and  reformers  of  France 
had  come  to  despise  the  monarchy  for  its  political  fee- 
bleness, and  saw  in  the  church  the  mainstay  of  a  gov- 
ernmental system  which  was  rapidly  degrading  their 
land  into  a  second-rate  power.  But  so  far  their  belief 
■  had  remained  in  the  stage  of  agitation,  and  action  was 
impossible  because  of  the  conservative  instincts  of  the 
burghers  and  their  guides.  But  now  all  this  w^as  to  be 
quickly  changed.  The  opportunity  was  found  in  the 
haughty  reactionary  temper,  which  was  partly  ecclesi- 
astical, partly  prelatical,  and  which  committed  the 
hierarchy  to  a  policy  of  stemming  completely  the  move- 
ment of  reforming  thought.  At  every  opportunity  the 
higher  clergy  exhibited  a  persistence  of  reaction  in 
church  matters  which  made  them  the  conspicuous  rep- 
resentatives of  immobility.^ 

The  first  thunderbolt  of  dismay,  therefore,  w^hich 
agitated  the  moderates  and  momentarily  paralyzed  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  people  did  not  fall,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  from  the  lowering,  muttering  heavens  above 
the  radicals;  it  fell  from  the  lofty  presumption  of  the 

^  For    the^  attitude    of    the     in   La   Republique  Frangaise, 
clergy  toward  the  Protestants,     XXXIII.  134. 
see   an   article   by   A,  Lods 


54         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


higher  clergy.  We  have  referred  to  the  degradation  of 
manners,  which  amounted  to  unbridled  libertinism  in 
some  cases,  that  so  far  characterized  many  of  the  pre- 
lates as  to  obscure  the  good  fame  of  the  rest.  An  anon- 
ymous address  to  the  lower  clergy,  published  in  1789, 
charged  their  superiors  with  being  the  most  degraded 
estate  of  the  realm.^  Its  influence  was  enormous. 
Composed  largely  of  men  from  the  estate  of  the  nobles, 
the  prelacy  nevertheless  abated  not  a  jot  from  their 
characteristic  arrogance  in  the  instructions  issued  by 
them  with  reference  to  the  States-General.  Roman 
Catholicism  was  to  be  maintained  as  the  sole  religion 
of  the  nation,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  degree  of  re- 
form; to  this  end  the  decree  of  tolerance  was  to  be 
revoked,  and  every  form  of  public  education  or  instruc- 
tion was  to  be  controlled  by  the  church  so  as  to  mould 
the  life  of  the  people,  spiritual,  moral,  and  intellectual.^ 
The  lower  clergy  then  rose  in  revolt.  They  reiter- 
ated their  charges  of  immorality,  their  complaints  both 
as  to  the  misuse  of  the  tithes  and  their  own  exclusion 
from  all  control  in  the  affairs  of  the  church.  The 
Jansenists  embodied  their  position  of  dissent  in  a  sepa- 
rate paper  prepared  by  them.^  But  the  struggle  of  the 
parish  clergy  and  of  the  Jansenists  was  on  the  whole 
ineffectual.     Though    they    secured  representation 


^  Reprinted  in  full  by  Robi- 
net,  I.  122.  It  opens:  "Gentle- 
men, the  moment  has  come  to 
break  the  chains  with  which 
episcopal  despotism  has  so  long 
fettered  you."  It  demands  the 
right  of  meeting,  of  choosing 
curates,  of  representation,  of 
distributing  the  charitable 
funds,  and  calls  for  a  church 
council.  The  language  is  plain 
and  cutting. 

^  Chassin,  Elections  et  les  Ca- 


hiers  de  Paris.  Also  Le  Genie 
de  la  Revolution,  II.  182. 

^  The  remonstrance  of  the 
Jansenists  was  written  by 
Pierre  Brugieres,  an  official  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Inno- 
cents, and  afterward  constitu- 
tional rector  of  St.  Paul's.  It 
is  a  pamphlet  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty-three  pages,  given  in 
Chassin,  and  entitled  Doleances 
des  ^^glisiers,  Soutaniers  ou 
Pretres  des  Paroisses  de  Paris. 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY 


55 


among  the  delegates  of  the  clerical  order,  the  body 
of  instructions  drawn  up  for  the  use  of  the  clerical  dele- 
gates remained  as  it  had  been — implacable  and  Ultra- 
montane. No  worship  except  the  mass,  this  rule  to 
be  enforced  by  the  secular  power,  and  to  that  end  all 
dissent  to  be  suppressed  by  the  force  of  persecution. 
There  was  to  be  no  alienation  or  diminution  of  tempo- 
ralities, no  interference  with  the  power  of  the  estate 
except  to  increase  it.  To  the  crown  was  given  a  limit 
as  to  its  misdeeds :  it  was  to  surrender  its  right  to  the 
income  of  the  vacant  abbeys.  Two  final  injunctions 
looked  in  a  direction  different  from  the  rest :  no  money 
subsidies  were  to  be  exacted  except  with  the  consent 
of  the  order  which  paid ;  there  was  to  be  no  interfer- 
ence from  without  in  the  affairs  of  any  estate  or  in  the 
private  concerns  of  the  individuals  which  composed  it. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  orders  of  the 
prelacy  and  the  nobility  were  in  a  certain  very  impor- 
tant sense  one  and  the  same.  The  process  of  turning 
the  monasteries  into  commendams  had  long  been  in 
operation.  By  the  terms  of  the  Concordat  of  1516  the 
king  was  always  to  name  as  abbot  a  monk  of  the  order 
at  least  twenty-three  years  old  and  never  a  secular  or 
simple  priest.  But  by  coercion  and  chicane  the  crown 
forced  on  the  monasteries,  as  the  abbacies  successively 
fell  vacant,  one  favorite  after  another,  secular  priests 
and  even  unordained  bachelors.  The  true  cause  of  the 
quarrel  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Innocent  XL  was  the  lat- 
ter's  refusal  to  install  as  commendatory  abbot  the 
king's  bastard  son  by  IMme.  de  Montespan  in  the  rich 
monasteries  of  Saint-Germain  des  Pres  and  Saint- 
Denis.  By  1 79 1  there  were  in  France  no  fewer  than 
six  hundred  and  forty-seven  such  commendatory 
abbots,  presiding  over  establishments  with  revenues 
amounting  by  the  official  figures  to  about  two  million 


56         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


dollars,  but  in  fact  to  three  or  four  times  that  amount  as 
money  goes  to-day.  Against  many  of  these  the  vilest 
charges  were  brought  by  their  own  colleagues.  There 
were  abbots  who  entertained  their  mistresses  and  bas- 
tard children  within  the  convent  walls;  there  were 
others  who  lived  in  open  scandal  with  the  noble  abbesses 
of  neighboring  nunneries,  and  some  who  turned  their 
official  residences  into  haunts  of  vice  for  the  nobility; 
in  short,  so  many  abbots  were  so  openly  reprobate  that 
a  papal  bull  on  the  subject  was  issued,  and  threats  of 
suppression  were  made.  Pluralism  was  almost  a  ve- 
nial fault,  and  was  so  common  as  scarcely  to  excite 
remark.  The  identity  of  nobles  and  prelates  to  such 
an  extent  as  existed  tended  to  fill  both  orders  with  a 
haughty  pride  and  wicked  exclusiveness.  They  made 
no  secret  of  the  disdain  they  felt  for  the  secular  parish 
priesthood,  or  for  the  excellent.  God-fearing  men  of 
their  own  profession,  men  who  conscientiously  per- 
formed their  duties  and  lived  humbly  in  the  exercise 
of  their  high  calling.^ 

The  real  temper  of  the  first  among  the  three  estates 
was  therefore  proud  and  unyielding.  It  matters  not 
that  it  likewise  demanded  the  regular  assembling  of 
the  estates,  the  abolition  of  servitude  in  France  and  of 
slavery  in  the  colonies,  the  publicity  of  treasury  ac- 
counts and  of  all  debates,  the  equable  distribution  of 
taxation;  that  the  members  expressed  a  willingness  to 
pay  taxes  themselves  according  to  their  ability,  that 
they  called  for  the  reform  of  the  codes  with  the  puri- 
fication of  the  prisons  and  galleys,  that  they  desired 
the  redemption  of  manorial  rights  and  wanted  respon- 
sible ministers  in  a  free  legislature — all  this,  specious 
as  it  is,  matters  nothing;  they  carefully  withheld  any 
statement  as  to  the  condition  of  their  own  purses,  sug- 
^Robinet,  I.,  p.  ii6.   Wallon,  Le  Clerge  de  '89,  p.  493. 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY 


57 


gested  no  reforms  in  the  gross  mismanagement  of  their 
own  revenues,  and  would  listen  to  no  meddling  with 
the  immunity  from  legal  control  which  so  long  had 
opened  the  way  to  the  most  grievous  abuses. 

It  is  a  serious  mistake,  also,  to  belittle  the  importance 
of  the  attack  on  the  Bastille  from  the  purely  political 
point  of  view.  Throughout  France  the  effects  were 
everywhere  and  instantaneously  revolutionary;  imme- 
diately, and  to  outward  appearance  spontaneously,  elec- 
tive municipal  governments  were  formed  to  replace  the 
crown  officials ;  more  menacing  still,  a  volunteer  mili- 
tia of  national  guards  was  organized,  owning  allegiance 
to  these  popular  authorities  only,  and  numbering  ere 
long,  as  Xecker  estimated,  between  three  and  four 
millions  of  men.  Simultaneously  the  country  folk  far 
and  near  demanded  the  destruction  of  those  vexatious 
charters,  dating  from  feudal  times,  which  contained 
the  provisions  and  guarantee  of  every  abominable  priv- 
ilege under  which  they  groaned.  This  form  of  land 
tenure  still  exists  in  England,  and  is  called  copyhold. 
Ownership  is  under  it  conditioned  on  several  forms  of 
tribute,  payable  in  kind  or  in  labor.  Wherever  the 
privileged  possessors  in  France  resisted,  their  chateaux 
were  pillaged,  the  muniment  chambers  broken  open, 
and  the  dusty  parchments  given  to  the  flames.  In 
short,  the  populace  began  at  once  to  take  certain  of 
the  reforms  demanded  by  the  third  estate  into  their 
own  hands.  This  was  the  response  of  the  plain  people 
to  the  stubbornness  of  the  ecclesiastics,  the  counter- 
stroke  to  their  haughty  fulminations  concerning  their 
church  and  order.  The  enthusiasm  for  moderate  pro- 
cedure hitherto  animating  all  Paris  and  the  delegates 
sitting  at  Versailles  got  a  jog  from  the  energies  of  pro- 
vincial France  which  reminded  those  charged  with 
reform  that  they  must  be  up  betimes  and  doing 


58         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


promptly,  or  reform  would  soon  be  revolution.  The 
attitude  so  far  assumed  by  the  prelacy,  and  through 
them  by  the  estate  of  the  clergy,  was  a  menace  to  the 
true  reconstruction  of  society  or  even  to  moderate 
change;  that  of  Frenchmen  at  large  was  a  stern  sum- 
mons to  thoroughness  and  promptness. 

The  result  of  all  this  was  a  species  of  panic  at  Ver- 
sailles, and  in  the  hot  haste  to  keep  step  with  events, 
clergy  and  nobles,  partly  enthusiastic,  partly  terrified, 
but  entirely  in  the  interest  of  self-preservation,  made, 
on  August  fourth,  the  well-known  holocaust  of  all  that 
survived  to  them  of  feudal  privilege.  The  king  alone 
remained  a  stranger  to  this  forced  enthusiasm,  and 
wrote  the  Archbishop  of  Aries  that  it  merely  slipped 
over  and  off  his  soul ;  that  he  would  never  despoil  his 
clergy.  But  cold  as  was  the  royal  inertia,  public  opin- 
ion moved  right  forward;  on  the  tenth  of  August, 
1789,  the  tithe  system  was,  under  this  pressure,  for- 
mally abolished,  and  with  it  the  annates  or  contribu- 
tions levied  directly  by  the  Vatican.  Toward  the  close 
of  October  was  completed  a  series  of  enactments,  care- 
fully, dispassionately  debated  and  studied,  which  pro- 
vided the  practical  means  for  the  complete  overthrow 
both  of  the  feudalism  and  ecclesiasticism  which  had 
characterized  the  old  monarchy  and  the  ancient  regime. 

It  was  far  from  the  intention  of  the  third  estate 
that  the  clergy  should  retain  its  prerogatives,  but  how 
little  the  historic  sense  permeated  the  burgher  class 
and  its  leaders,  likewise  how  destitute  of  philosophic 
insight  they  were,  can  be  seen  in  the  attitude  taken  by 
their  official  instructions  to  their  delegates,  especially 
in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  matters.  Demanding  com- 
plete liberty,  they  yet,  with  perfect  fatuity,  contem- 
plated the  perpetuation  of  Roman  Catholicism  as  a 
state  religion.    They  were  as  illogical  as  the  clerics, 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY  59 


never  dreaming  that  a  state  religion  was  already  an 
anachronism,  and  supposing  that  an  official  religion 
could  be  consistent  with  freedom  of  faith  and  worship. 
It  is  very  difficult  for  readers  in  this  land  and  age  to 
realize  that  but  little  more  than  a  century  ago  the 
most  enlightened  portion  of  the  most  enlightened  Euro- 
pean people  could  form  no  conception  of  any  or- 
ganized spiritual  or  intellectual  activity  performing  its 
functions  without  state  interference  and  regulation. 
The  most  conservative  prelates,  men  like  ^larboeuf, 
Archbishop  of  Lyons,  regarded  the  whole  movement 
as  anarchical ;  but  he  and  his  kind  were  at  least  more 
logical  than  the  men,  like  Themines  of  Blois,  who  were 
ready  to  sacrifice  their  privileges  if  only  they  could 
keep  their  power;  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux  outdid 
even  the  most  liberal,  offering  to  sacrifice  half  his  reve- 
.nue,  and  preaching  peace  and  good  will,  but,  like  all 
the  rest,  he  said  not  one  word  about  liberty  of  con- 
science. This  thought  had  no  form  in  the  mind  of  a 
single  prelate ;  there  was  no  word  for  it  in  their  vocab- 
ulary. This  was  why  the  electors  of  Paris,  why  the 
populace,  which  alone  had  an  instinctive  grasp  of  the 
situation,  why,  in  short,  the  sharpened  wit  of  the  na- 
tion shouted:  *'No  clergy,  no  clergy!"  The  very  men 
who  embodied  in  their  instructions  demands  for  every 
species  of  ecclesiastical  reform — liberty  of  conscience, 
abolition  of  Peter's  pence,  of  monastic  vows,  of  clerical 
absenteeism,  of  simony  in  the  monopoly  of  benefices — 
in  short,  of  every  abuse ;  who  suggested  reforms 
amounting  to  revolution  and  utterly  distrusted  their 
spiritual  guides — these  were  the  men  who  yet  fondly 
hoped  to  retain  a  reformed  Roman  Catholicism.  It 
seems  impossible,  yet  this  was  a  phase  of  national  feel- 
ing as  disastrous  as  the  haughty  spirit  of  the  prelates. 
/'Truly,"  said  Plautus,  "a  man  cannot  suck  and  blow 


6o         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


with  the  same  breath."  It  required  the  blast  furnace 
of  Napoleonic  imperialism  to  smelt  the  stubborn  ore 
of  lingering,  unreformed  Roman  Ultramontanism,  but 
even  that  could  not  melt  out  of  the  refractory  French 
mind  the  fatal  concept  that  a  state  religion  is  indis- 
pensable. 

The  careful  examination  of  these  two  extremes,  rep- 
resented by  the  two  classes  of  the  privileged  on  the  one 
side — the  nobles  and  the  clergy,  and  by  the  third  estate 
on  the  other,  untutored  and  over-sanguine  as  it  was — 
this  alone  can  lead  us  through  the  labyrinth  of  events. 
The  antinomies  of  their  respective  positions  were  care- 
fully concealed  by  both  parties  alike  from  themselves 
and  from  each  other.  But,  really  though  vaguely  con- 
scious of  it,  they  struggled  to  overcome  the  obstacle 
by  debate;  lofty  as  was  the  tone  of  their  speeches, 
they  failed  in  their  purpose,  and  recourse  was  then  had 
to  riot  for  composing  the  irreconcilable  extremes ;  when 
riot  showed  its  impotence,  revolution  took  up  the  task. 
Even  revolution  was  at  first  mildly  religious,  but  ex- 
aggeration and  exasperation  soon  gave  impiety  the 
upper  hand,  and  it  maintained  its  power  until  state  and 
people  were  on  the  verge  of  disintegration.  Then  at 
last,  after  the  Roman  Catholicism,  not  of  France  alone, 
but  of  all  western  and  central  Europe,  had  been  purged 
by  Napoleon  in  the  fires  of  persecution  and  humilia- 
tion, the  compromise  was  reached  under  which  France 
lives  at  the  present  time.  The  Concordat  must  be 
judged  on  its  merits;  it  does  not  work  smoothly  now, 
and  many  believe  the  hour  has  struck  for  the  next  ad- 
vance; but  a  century  ago  it  saved  the  existence  of 
France  as  a  nation,  not  because  it  was  an  ideal  com- 
promise abstractedly,  but  because  it  swathed  the  swol- 
len veins  and  bandaged  for  the  time  being  the  flaccid, 
flabby  muscles  of  the  body  politic. 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY  6i 


The  disintegration  of  French  society  during  the 
early  years  of  the  Revolution,  the  complete  abdication 
of  its  duties  by  the  triple  power  of  family,  church,  and 
state,  the  crumbling  of  every  institution  conservative 
in  nature  or  tendency — this  not  merely  was  the  riddle 
of  the  epoch  itself,  but  continues  to  be  the  puzzle  of 
later  investigators.  Nothing  like  it  is  known  to  his- 
tory in  the  long  precedent  course  of  recorded  time; 
may  the  world  be  saved  from  comparable  terrors  and 
horrors  until  time  shall  be  no  more!  The  process  just 
outlined  was  the  internal  cause,  as  the  attitude  of  the 
European  state  system  toward  the  movement  was  the 
external  one.  The  French  church  w^ithdrew  from  all 
constructive  participation  in  much  the  same  proportion 
as  the  foreign  powers  endeavored  to  coerce  a  jealous 
and  sensitive  people.  The  sane  leadership  of  the  true 
aristocrats,  the  pious,  the  learned,  and  the  prosperous, 
disappeared  just  in  proportion  as  a  religious  hierarchy 
dependent  on  an  Italian  potentate  denied  its  assistance 
to  the  control  of  French  affairs.  Where  calm  judg- 
ment and  moderate  reform  refused  cooperation,  fierce 
energy  and  radical  revolution  gained  an  entrance  w^hich 
fury  widened  into  first  one,  then  another  and  an- 
other breach,  until  the  bulwarks  against  the  ferocity, 
fury,  and  madness  of  the  wicked  fell  before  perni- 
cious activity  in  assault.  We  offer  therefore  no  ex- 
cuse for  reiterating  the  analysis  of  the  process  wdiich 
led  Voltaire  to  desire  the  divorce  of  church  and  state, 
Alirabeau  to  cry  aloud  for  the  decatholicization  of 
France,  and  the  vile  Hebert  to  demand  the  dechris- 
tianizing  of  the  land.  The  first  step  was  when,  under 
awful  fiscal  pressure,  the  ecclesiastical  estates  w^ere  de- 
clared forfeit ;  the  second  was  when  a  recalcitrant  hier- 
archy w^as^ dissolved  to  find  its  substitute  in  a  primitive 
and  presbyterial  organization ;  the  third  was  the  attack 


62         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


on  Christian  worship,  the  attempted  substitution  in  its 
stead  of  an  atheistic,  deistic,  and  eclectic  heathen  cult, 
each  in  turn;  finally,  the  fourth  was  the  reintegration 
of  the  social  atoms  under  the  Concordat  of  1801. 

The  benevolent  despot  was  the  hero  of  the  hour  in 
politics — all  for  the  people,  nothing  by  the  people,  was 
his  motto.  It  was  with  the  same  air  that  the  clergy 
and  nobles  went  forward  in  the  work  of  suppressing 
the  tithes,  long  a  hateful  institution  to  the  masses — the 
bloody  leech,  they  called  them,  which  sucked  out  their 
vigor  and  their  very  life.  One  efficient  cause  of  the 
French  Revolution,  as  is  well  known,  was  the  utter 
absence  of  order  in  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom — the 
same  thing  not  done  in  the  same  way  in  any  two  places 
throughout  the  kingdom.  Nothing  illustrates  this 
more  clearly  than  the  tithing  system.  Many  of  the 
tithes,  by  far  the  largest  part,  belonged  to  the  monas- 
teries, which  collected  them,  acting  in  the  role  of  gros 
decimatcnrs,  and,  absorbing  most,  doled  out  the 
wretched  portions  congrues,  ranging  from  two  to  five 
hundred  livres,  on  which  the  rectors  or  parish  clergy 
starved.  Another  large  portion  of  the  tithes  had  under 
the  feudal  system  been  enfeoffed  to  lay  suzerains,  so 
that  they  actually  formed  the  revenues  of  men  not  even 
sentimentally  connected  with  the  church  or  interested 
in  religious  affairs.  Nor  were  there  two  provinces  or 
districts  where  the  assessments  and  collections  were 
made  on  the  same  system,  much  less  equably  and 
equally  administered.  In  tithing,  as  in  the  forms  of 
taxation,  the  absence  of  all  order  in  procedure  opened 
wide  the  door  to  infinite  irregularity,  abuse,  and  tyr- 
anny. Somehow,  by  hook  and  crook,  tithes  to  the 
amount  of  seventy  millions  of  livres  were  collected  by 
the  ecclesiastics  and  ten  by  the  lay  owners.  Allow- 
ance will  be  made  for  the  high  purchasing  power  and 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRELACY  63 


value  of  these  sums,  and  to  them  must  be  added  about 
three  hundred  thousand  hvres  collected  by  papal  offi- 
cials directly  for  the  Pope  and  transmitted  to  him. 
These  were  the  annates.  Such  were  the  burdens  lifted, 
with  the  attitude  of  benevolent  condescension,  by  the 
clergy  and  nobles;  in  reality  there  was  no  merit  in  the 
sacrifice,  for  they  dared  not  act  otherwise. 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE 


V 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE 

IT  is  not  clear  from  the  records  of  the  memorable 
night  sitting  of  August  fourth,  when  the  Assem- 
bly declared  "the  feudal  system  utterly  abolished," 
how  far  fear,  how  far  generous  impulse,  how  far  a 
sense  of  constitutional  pressure  were  singly  and  in  com- 
bination the  operative  forces.  Nor  probably  could  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  have  told,  had  they  en- 
deavored to  analyze  their  motives.  In  fact,  using  the 
word  constitutional  in  its  broadest  sense,  the  decree  of 
August  fourth  was  simply  the  formal  approval  or  rati- 
fication of  the  municipal  revolution  just  noted,  which 
had  been  the  work  of  the  French  people,  scarcely  con- 
scious of  its  democratic,  revolutionary  attitude.  The 
Assembly  came  into  existence  as  a  constituent  body  by 
procedures  that  were  violent  and  irregular;  it  claimed 
recognition  as  national,  but  it  could  not  really  be  so  or 
be  acknowledged  as  such,  except  as  it  appeared  truly 
to  represent  and  to  lead  the  nation.  Accordingly 
there  was  not  a  single  element  of  the  realm  which  did 
not  accede;  parlcments,  offices  of  taxation  and  credit, 
university,  estates,  and  all  the  cities,  every  one  hastened 
to  participate  in  and  approve  the  movement  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  this  way  the  unity  of  France  secured  unmis- 
takable recognition ;  the  army  was  required  to  swear 
allegiance  to  nation,  king,  and  law;  the  officers,  in 
presence  o-f  their  troops  and  before  the  municipal 

67 


68         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


officials,  were  required  to  take  an  oath  never  to  use 
force  against  citizens  except  on  the  demand  of  the  civil 
authorities.  Every  vicar  and  rector  was  publicly  to 
announce  the  fact  and  to  assure  the  execution  of  the 
decree  by  the  exercise  of  persuasion  and  zeal.^ 

So  much  of  a  constitutiotj  as  existed  in  France  an- 
terior to  1789  was  of  course  unwTitten.  This  tra- 
ditional and  indefinite  quality  was  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  the  thinking  men  familiar  with  the  English 
constitution;  it  was  equal}^  so  to  the  instincts  of  the 
fairly  intelligent,  aware  of  the  agitations  connected 
with  the  parlenients.  These  had  insisted  always  on 
the  existence  of  ''fundamental  laws,"  stunted  and  em- 
bryonic as  they  might  be,  and  on  the  ''most  essential 
and  sacred  constitution  of  the  monarchy,"  drawing  a 
distinction  most  emphatically  between  statutory  and 
constitutional  law.  Many  thoughtful  Frenchmen  were 
likewise  well  informed  as  to  the  original  State  consti- 
tutions of  our  own  country  and  the  bills  of  rights  in 
some  of  them.  These  all  had  been  published  in  a  vol- 
ume dated  1778.  Initial  and  crucial  to  the  constitu- 
tional struggle  of  the  Revolution  was  the  question  which 
arose  immediately  on  the  assembling  of  the  estates : 
Should  the  orders  vote  separately?  In  the  former 
case  the  two  higher  orders  would  overrule  the  single 
lower  one.  Or  should  the  members  vote  as  individuals  ? 
In  the  latter  the  six  hundred  and  sixty-one  deputies  of 
the  lower  would  outvote  the  combined  five  hundred  and 
ninety-three  of  the  clergy  and  nobility.  The  momen- 
tous scene  known  as  the  Tennis  Court  Oath,  which 
gave  the  victory  to  the  third  estate,  was  in  reality 
the  climax  of  a  movement  by  the  parlements,  lasting 
throughout  1788,  to  formulate  the  essentials  of  the 
"constitution."  The  effort  at  first  blush  appears  ab- 
^  Aulard,  Histoire  Politique  de  la  Revolution  Frangaise,  p.  39. 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  69 


surd,  because  it  strove  to  recall  anachronisms  from  the 
antique  privileges  of  the  feudal  provinces.  Yet  the 
struggle  had  vitality :  the  idea  of  a  constitution,  being 
repeated  again  and  again  in  various  quarters,  finally 
became  national.  In  many  of  the  cahiers  forming  the 
instructions  of  the  third  estate  it  was  pleaded  that  the 
"constitutives,"  or  fundamental  laws,  should  now  find 
a  firmer  basis  than  tradition — viz.,  in  justice  and  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  Only  in  this  way,  it  was  felt, 
could  crying  abuses  be  abolished  and  a  return  to  sound 
government  be  secured. 

This  was  the  agitation  which  had  permeated  all 
France.  It  partly  explains  not  merely  the  overthrow 
of  feudalism,  but  likewise  the  nature  of  the  famous 
declaration  of  rights.  The  classical  spirit  furnished  a 
rather  foolish  confidence  in  paper  reform,  but  it  w^as  a 
glimmer  of  historic  sense  shining  through  the  darkness 
of  passion  which  furnished  the  items  in  that  document. 
They  are  not  all  doctrinaire,  as  so  many  who  know 
them  only  at  second  hand  firmly  believe;  they  are  in 
large  part  concrete  and  real.  Some  of  the  paragraphs 
enumerate  reforms  already  promised  by  the  king,  some 
aim  to  abolish  historic  abuses  hitherto  untouched,  others 
recount  the  natural  and  civic  rights  to  be  guaranteed 
by  a  constitution,  or  form  of  government  to  be  estab- 
lished for  securing  all  rights  in  equal  measure  to  all 
men.  There  are  some — a  few — which  are  purely  theo- 
retical. These  are  absurd  because  based  on  Rousseau's 
contract  theory  of  government;  they  either  enumerate 
visionary  rights  presumed  to  have  existed  before  man's 
existence  as  a  social  being,  or  else  they  recount  so-called 
rights  which  could  be  deduced  only  from  the  imaginary 
contract,  and  are  therefore  as  much  in  the  air  as  the 
others.  In  the  main,  however,  the  items  in  the  bill  re- 
late, as  wa's  said,  to  existing  abuses  that  are  to  be  abol- 


70         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

ished.  The  whole  paper  is  a  compromise  between 
theoretical  and  historical  claims,  but  the  latter,  after 
all,  preponderate.^ 

This  constitutional  agitation  accounts,  moreover,  at 
least  in  part,  for  the  curious  phenomenon  of  the  mu- 
nicipal revolution  itself.  It  was  the  extent  of  discus- 
sion about  fundamentals  and  the  interest  thus  awak- 
ened which  alone  made  it  possible.  But  it  did  not 
break  forth  by  the  initiative  of  its  own  forces.  The 
spread  of  delirium  throughout  France  subsequent  to 
the  destruction  of  the  Bastille  was  not  really  sponta- 
neous ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  almost  certainly  due  to  a 
carefully  arranged  plan  made  and  carried  out  by  some 
one  in  Paris  who  remains  still  the  Great  Unknown : 
neither  the  prime  mover  nor  the  principal  agents  ever 
avowed  their  act.  Several  claimed  the  credit  or  dis- 
credit, among  others  Mirabeau,  and  then  disclaimed  it 
after  the  sad  conseqences  were  only  too  apparent.  But 
the  work  was  thoroughly  done,  and  in  the  crash  of  priv- 
ilege inaugurated  on  August  fourth,  the  eagerness  of 
all,  from  the  Aveakest,  who  had  nothing  but  expecta- 
tions, to  the  most  powerful,  who  had  millions,  was  an 
unprecedented  illustration  of  the  hysteria  which  over- 
powers crowds.  Some  few  there  were  of  the  most 
experienced  and  adroit  who  kept  their  heads :  of  these 
probably  the  most  were  high-minded  and  sincere,  but  a 
number  were  beyond  peradventure  quite  the  reverse, 
anxious  to  create  a  chaos — a  chaos  from  which  no  other 
order  could  be  evolved  than  that  which  they  pretended 
to  overthrow.  This  was  especially  true  of  many  among 
the  higher  ecclesiastical  feudatories,  whose  subsequent 
conduct  proved  that  the  immolation  of  their  quit-rents 

*  See  two  admirable  discus-     iimes  of  the  Political  Science 
sions  of  this  question  by  J.  H.     Quarterly  for  1899  and  1900. 
Robinson,  published  in  the  vol- 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  71 


and  mortmains  was  only  a  scheme  to  regain  them  in 
whole  or  in  part  on  a  surer  foundation.  But  the  tide 
of  public  opinion  without  the  walls  of  the  assembly 
chamber  was  too  strong,  and  radical  changes  had  to  be 
made  without  awaiting  the  deliberations  of  the  Eccle- 
siastical Committee. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  the  process  was  accelerated; 
on  the  sixth,  in  spite  of  urgent  efforts  to  save  the  church 
estates  from  the  operation  of  the  sweeping  declaration 
made  two  days  earlier,  all  feudal  rights  and  aids  were 
formally  abolished :  quit-rents,  mortmain,  real  and  per- 
sonal, together  with  the  remnants  of  serfage.  These 
were  the  very  corner-stone  of  feudalism,  and  were 
wiped  out  without  redemption :  such  only  as  were  of  a 
purely  economic  nature  were  declared  redeemable. 
Next  day  the  debate  was  less  bitter  and  the  game  laws 
were  reformed ;  amnesty  was  granted  to  all  offenders 
under  the  old  system  and  the  punishment  of  the  galleys 
was  abolished.  On  the  tenth  began  the  debate  over  the 
question  of  tithes :  there  was  little  dissent  as  to  their 
abolition,  but  the  widest  divergence  of  opinion  as 
to  how  it  should  be  done.  Arnauld  and  Dupont 
demanded  suppression  pure  and  simple;  Lapoule  sup- 
pression, but  with  a  provision  for  salaries ;  Lanjui- 
nais  and  the  Bishop  of  Langres  pleaded  for  com- 
plete indemnity;  Jallet,  Gregoire,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Dijon  earnestly  desired  the  substitution  of  landed  prop- 
erty yielding  an  income  sufficient  to  support  public  wor- 
ship; Chasset  suggested  the  redemption  of  such  rights 
as  were  called  lay,  or  infeudated,  or  impropriate — viz., 
closely  akin  to  private  ownership  because  they  could  be 
transmitted.  This  latest  proposition,  that  of  Chasset, 
was  warmly  supported  by  Mirabeau,  referred  to  the 
committee,  and  ordered  to  be  put  into  form.  Sieyes 
argued  forcibly  for  redemption  in  money  or  in  kind  of 


72         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


all  tithes;  Lanjuinais  and  Montesquieu  for  their  pres- 
ervation, together  with  all  the  ecclesiastical  estates; 
Garat  the  younger  opposed,  and  finally  Talleyrand  so 
forcibly  urged  Chasset's  proposition  that  it  was  passed 
in  the  form  reported  by  the  committee.  Measures 
were  taken  to  abolish  the  annates  (contributions  to 
Rome),  and  thus  the  whole  feudal  regime  declared 
abolished  on  the  fourth  was  legislated  away  formally 
on  the  thirteenth.  Two  days  later  the  decree  was  laid 
/  before  the  king;  he,  however,  temporized  and  delayed 
its  promulgation  until  the  working  details  were  com- 
pleted. It  finally  became  a  law  partly  on  September 
twenty-seventh,  partly  on  November  third. 

The  intolerable  burden  of  the  tithes,  with  its  accom- 
panying scandals,  was  thus  removed ;  but  there  was  an- 
other abuse  equally  serious.  As  early  as  the  eighth  La 
Coste  and  Alexandre  de  Lameth,  nobles  of  the  upper 
and  lower  castes  respectively,  had  begun  to  demand 
complete  religious  reform :  resumption  of  ecclesiastical 
estates  by  the  nation  and  the  abolition  of  monasteries, 
nunneries,  convents,  and  abbeys.  There  was  compara- 
tive calm  during  the  ripe,  dispassionate  speech  of  the 
former,  and  some  excitement  under  the  fervid  oratory 
of  the  latter.  And  well  might  there  be  a  rising  tide 
of  earnestness,  for  the  nation  was  swiftly  approaching 
financial  ruin,  its  people  were  threatened  with  starva- 
tion, and  its  affairs  were  on  the  verge  of  chaos.  Pen- 
ury, want,  hunger,  were  no  longer  abstractions,  but 
realities.  The  autumn  was  fast  approaching,  winter 
was  just  beyond,  there  were  no  adequate  food  supplies 
and  famine  was  visible  in  the  near  future.  The  privi- 
leged classes  were  still  enjoying  their  revenues  and 
savings,  not  in  moderation,  as  might  have  been  endur- 
able, but  in  ostentation  and  wasteful  luxury. 

The  agitators  began  to  express  regret  that  the  work 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  73 


of  July  had  not  been  thorough  in  the  erasure  of  the  old 
system,  the  unholy  amalgam  of  monarchy,  feudalism, 
and  ecclesiasticism.  Like  Hannibal,  they  said,  they 
had  fallen  asleep  at  Capua.  Candles  were  still  burning 
at  the  high  altars  and  Te  Deums  rang  through  vaulted 
arches ;  it  was  now  feared  that  the  clergy  might  regain 
its  position  as  the  first  estate  of  the  realm,  a  possibility 
to  be  avoided  at  any  cost.  Necker's  propositions  for 
fiscal  reform  seemed  too  slow  and  inadequate :  let  the 
state  reclaim  its  own  and  put  the  clergy,  who  retained 
the  mien  and  port  of  masters,  in  their  true  place  as 
servants.  To  this  end  France  must  resume  what  was 
really  its  own — viz.,  all  the  vast  ecclesiastical  estates  of 
the  realm.  A  considerable  number  stigmatized  the 
proposition  as  nothing  less  than  confiscation.  There 
was  much  fiery  fencing,  but  in  the  main  an  earnest  mod- 
eration prevailed,  and  efYorts  were  made  either  to  evade 
the  necessity  or  at  least  to  find  a  method  not  openly 
attacking  the  right  of  property  in  either  natural  or  cor- 
porate persons. 

As  a  proof  of  the  enthusiasm  with  moderation 
which  it  was  hoped  and  intended  should  still  control 
the  national  representatives  in  dealing  with  religion, 
an  able  committee  was  appointed  on  August  twentieth 
to  consider  carefully  and  report  a  plan  of  reform ;  from 
its  constitution,  the  liberal  Gallicans  and  Jansenists 
alike  hoped  for  such  a  reorganization  as  would  preserve 
the  church  but  at  the  same  time  place  it  under  secular 
control.^    At  the  head  of  the  committee  was  Bishop 

^  The  list  as  given  in  the  min-  Despatis       de  Courteilles. 

utes  is:  Lanjuinais.  D'Ormes-  L'£veque  de  Lugon  (de  Mer- 

son.Grandin.  Martineau.  De  La-  cy).  de  Boutliillier.    The  sec- 

lande,  Le  Prince  de  Robecq,  ond  list  was  Dom  Gerle  (Char- 

Salle     de    Choux.    Treilhard,  treux).     Dionis     du  Sejour, 

Legrand.     \'aneaii.     Durand-  L'Abbe  de  Montesquioii.  Giiil- 

Maillane.   L'fiveque   de   Cler-  laume.  De  la  Coste.  Dupont  de 

mont    (Fran<;ois    de    Bonal),  Nemours,  Massieu  (cure),  Ex- 


74         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Frangois  de  Bonal,  a  determined  conservative,  but  will- 
ing to  reform  abuses;  associated  with  him  as  clerical 
members  were  the  Bishop  of  Lucon  with  three  cures, 
Grandin,  Vaneau,  and  Lalande,  all  men  of  power  and 
fitted  to  defend  the  parish  priests  against  the  superior 
orders  of  the  hierarchy.  A  lay  conservative  was  D'Or- 
messon,  the  well-known  jurisconsult  and  a  powerful 
court  lawyer.  Three  liberal  laymen  were  Lanjuinais, 
Maillane,  and  Treilhard :  the  first  a  canon-law  jurist  of 
profound  erudition,  the  second  a  secular  and  ecclesias- 
tical jurisconsult  of  brilliant  scholarship,  and  the  third 
a  convincing  orator,  still  moderate  but  with  leanings 
toward  radicalism.  In  November  the  popular  behest 
compelled  the  addition  of  several  others;  on  February 
seventh,  1790,  the  committee  was  enlarged  to  double  the 
original  number  by  the  addition,  among  others,  of  Dom 
Gerle  the  Carthusian,  an  extreme  revolutionary ;  of  the 
Abbe Montesquiou, defender  of  the  clergy;  and  of  Chas- 
set,  a  moderate  liberal.  The  most  important  influence 
in  shaping  the  measures  eventually  adopted  was,  how- 
ever, exerted  by  men  not  appointed  even  in  the  two 
first  selections,  but  who  began  to  cooperate  later  in 
the  year :  by  Camus,  counsel  to  the  French  clergy,  an 
austere  Jansenist,  the  oracle  of  the  advanced  liberals 
and  therefore  a  most  masterful  man  in  the  work;  by 
Emanuel  Freteau  de  St.  Just,  nobleman  and  councillor 
of  the  pari  cine  lit  of  Paris;  by  Henri  Gregoire  from 
Lorraine,  afterward  the  famous  Bishop  of  Blois. 
Alas!  long  ere  this  excellent  committee  could  report, 
the  passions  of  the  populace  gained  in  intensity  to  such 
a  degree  that  calm  deliberation  was  impossible  either 
in  its  own  sessions  or  in  those  of  the  parent  assembly. 

pilly  (cure),  Chasset,  Gassendi  ally    refused    to    act — Bonal, 

(cure),   Boislandry,   Fermont,  Mercy,     Bouthillier,  Robecq, 

Dom  Breton  (Benediclin),  La-  Salle,   Vaneau,   Grandin,  La- 

poule,   Thiebaut    (cure).     Of  lande,  and  Montesquiou. 
the  entire  thirty,  nine  eventu- 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  75 


Camus  was  now  a  man  of  nearly  fifty.  Born  in 
Paris,  he  had  espoused  the  profession  of  law  with  ar- 
dor, and  in  early  manhood  had  attained  such  distinc- 
tion in  the  field  of  ecclesiastical  pleading  as  to  be  chosen 
by  the  Elector  of  Treves  and  Prince  Salm-Salm  for  the 
defence  of  a  famous  plea  they  were  urging  against  the 
\'atican.  His  avocation  was  the  science  of  nature, 
and  such  was  its  hold  upon  him  that  he  was  perhaps  at 
one  time  more  famous  for  his  classical  translation  of 
Aristotle's  "Researches  about  Animals"  than  for  his 
legal  acumen.  It  was  as  an  ardent  liberal  that  he  was 
elected  a  deputy  for  the  third  estate  of  Paris  to  the 
States-General.  His  talents  marked  him  for  distinc- 
tion, and  he  was  made  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  As- 
sembly. One  of  the  heroic  figures  in  the  Tennis  Court, 
he  sided  with  Mirabeau  in  his  attitude  toward  royalty. 
His  power  as  a  lawyer  rendered  his  appointment  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee  imperative,  and  the  Civil  Con- 
stitution was  largely  his  work.  Later  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Convention,  by  which  he  was  sent  as  a  com- 
missioner into  Flanders.  Dumouriez  betrayed  him  to 
the  Austrians.  and  during  a  long  captivity  he  employed 
his  time  in  translating  Epictetus.  Exchanged  in  1795 
for  Madame  Royale,  daughter  of  Louis  X\'I..  he  re- 
sumed the  duties  of  public  archivist,  was  a  member  of 
the  Five  Hundred  under  the  Directory,  but,  distrusting 
Bonaparte,  withdrew  from  public  life  on  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Consulate.  A  Roman  Catholic  Puritan, 
stern,  inflexible,  and  upright,  he  employed  the  rest  of 
his  days,  until  his  death  in  1804,  in  the  congenial  duty 
of  collecting  far  and  near  documents  relating  to  French 
history. 

Second  only  in  importance  as  moulding  the  Constitu- 
tional pojicy  regarding  the  church,  and  first  as  a  sup- 
porter of  it,  was  Gregoire.  With  Rabaud  and  Gerle,  he 
occupies  the  foreground  of  David's  famous  picture  of 


76         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  scene  in  the  Tennis  Court.  In  his  interesting  me- 
moirs he  tells  but  two  anecdotes  about  his  youth :  one, 
that  his  mind  was  formed,  though  attending  a  Jesuit 
college,  by  two  ultra-liberal  books,  Boucher's  "De  Justa 
Henrici  Tertii  Abdicatione,"  and  Languet's  ''Vindiciae 
contra  Tyrannos" ;  the  other  that,  asking  the  librarian 
at  Nancy  for  amusing  books,  he  received  a  stern  rebuke 
which  he  never  forgot :  ''My  friend,  you  have  come  to 
the  wrong  place;  we  furnish  only  instructive  books." 
His  earliest  important  effort  as  an  author  was  a  power- 
ful plea  for  the  rehabilitation  of  the  Jews,  which  at- 
tracted general  attention.  A  village  rector  in  Lorraine, 
he  gained  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  people  far  and 
near,  being  chosen  as  a  matter  of  course  to  represent  the 
lower  clergy  in  the  States-General.  As  a  deputy  he  was 
a  passionate  reformer,  being  foremost  in  the  struggles 
against  primogeniture  and  all  the  feudal  privileges; 
he  seconded  Collot-d'Herbois's  motion  to  abolish  roy- 
alty, but  did  not  vote  for  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI. 
His  work  on  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee  was  largely 
critical,  but  it  was  his  power  of  persuasion  which  or- 
ganized the  movement  in  which  so  many  of  the  clergy 
accepted  the  Civil  Constitution.  His  character  w^as 
spotless.  Sent  with  two  colleagues  to  arrange  for  in- 
corporating Savoy  into  France,  he  lived  with  such 
economy  that  he  saved  a  considerable  sum  from  his 
slender  allowance  for  expenses,  and  this  he  returned  to 
the  treasury,  shaking  it  out  of  a  knot  in  his  handker- 
chief. When  on  one  occasion  at  Nice  his  supper  was 
two  oranges  bought  for  two  cents,  he  expressed  joy 
that  he  cost  the  republic  so  little.  It  was  he  who  gave 
form  to  the  decree  against  royalty,  and  he  naively  re- 
lates that  on  its  adoption  he  suffered  from  such  an 
excess  of  joy  that  he  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep.^ 
^  Gregoire,  Memoires,  edited  by  H.  Carnot,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1857. 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  77 


Gerle  the  Carthusian  was  prior  of  the  convent  of 
Porte-Sainte-Marie.  In  the  Electoral  Assembly  of 
Riom  he  successfully  withstood  Bishop  Bonal  in  the 
latter's  effort  to  have  the  cahiers  voted  by  orders,  and 
vras  consequently  elected  to  the  States-General.  His 
natural  leanings  were  radical,  though  he  seems  at  first 
to  have  been  a  sincere  Christian.  His  erratic  course 
will  be  recounted  in  another  connection.  It  appears  to 
have  been  caused  by  a  steady  degeneration  in  a  brain 
never  too  strong.  He  was  a  puzzled  mystic  in  his  asso- 
ciations with  the  women  prophetesses  Suzanne  La- 
brousse  and  Catherine  Theot.  Vague  in  his  ideas  and 
foolish  in  his  behavior,  he  seems  to  have  had  some  con- 
ception of  reform  as  a  return  to  primitive  simplicity. 
But  he  was  never  taken  too  seriously  either  by  himself 
or  by  others,  and  died  in  obscurity. 

A  most  interesting  light  is  thrown  on  the  condition 
of  religious  sentiment  in  the  Assembly,  at  the  time  of 
appointing  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee,  in  a  connection 
quite  different — namely,  in  the  debates  on  the  famous 
Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  These  took  place  on 
the  twenty-sixth  and  twenty-seventh  of  August.  The 
preamble  itself  was  a  compromise,  for  an  effort  was 
made  by  men  who  were  atheists  at  heart  to  exclude 
from  it  all  mention  of  God,  on  the  plea  that  the  idea 
was  either  too  trite  or  too  universal  to  need  mention. 
In  the  end  the  clause  ran :  'The  National  Assembly  ac- 
knowledges and  declares,  ?/;zf/rr  tJic  auspices  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  that  the  following  rights  belong  to  men 
and  citizens."  These  rights  were  quickly  enumerated 
in  the  abstract :  liberty,  property,  security,  resistance  to 
opposition.  The  younger  Mirabeau  pleaded  that  the 
Ten  Commandments  be  inserted  as  the  first  paragraphs 
of  the  new  constitution,  but  this  was  felt  to  be  superflu- 
ity; each  faction  had  a  different  conception  of  the  reali- 


78         THE  FRE^XH  REVOLUTION 


ties  underlying  the  abstractions  enumerated.  To  the 
churchman  rehgious  Hberty,  for  example,  meant  a 
dominant  church  with  toleration  for  the  sects ;  to  the 
moderate  reformers  it  meant  absolute  equality  of 
church  and  sects;  to  !Mirabeau  the  very  word  ''tolera- 
tion" was  a  tyrannical  anachronism — in  a  free  system 
there  could  be  no  authority  capable  of  tolerating. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  radicals  and  philoso- 
phers would  have  been  like  minded  with  ]\Iirabeau. 
Not  so :  they  were  as  intolerant  as  not  even  an  Ultra- 
montane churchman  dared  to  be,  and  desired  the  utter 
abolition  not  only  of  ecclesiasticism,  but  of  all  reli- 
gion. AMiile  the  Declaration  was  the  pet  device  of 
these  last,  they  were  compelled  to  adopt  language  of 
double  meaning.  Paragraphs  sixteen,  seventeen,  and 
eighteen  of  the  paper  are  as  follows :  ''The  law  not 
being  able  to  reach  secret  offences,  it  belongs  to  reli- 
gion and  morality  to  supply  the  deficiency.  It  is 
therefore  essential,  for  the  good  order  of  society,  that 
both  should  be  respected.  The  maintenance  of  re- 
ligion requires  a  public  worship.  Respect  for  public 
worship  is  then  indispensable.  Every  citizen  who  does 
not  disturb  the  established  worship  ought  not  to  be 
molested."  Apparently  this  language  gave  no  legal 
existence  to  non-Catholics :  the  word  religion  was  still 
synonymous  with  Catholicism  to  the  cleric. 

The  prelates  were  satisfied ;  the  Bishop  of  Clermont 
quoted  Plutarch  as  a  commentary,  ''A  city  is  in  the  air 
without  religion ;  there  can  be  no  commonwealth  with- 
out worship."  Laborde  was  the  only  one  flatly  to  de- 
mand entire  religious  liberty.  The  debate  was  brilliant, 
but  stormy  and  ineffectual ;  the  conservatives,  supported 
by  the  clergy  as  a  whole,  never  flinched  from  the  posi- 
tion that  respect  for  religion  is  a  duty;  the  opposition 
asserted  that  religious  liberty  was  a  right.    At  last  it 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  79 


was  evident  that  there  must  be  a  postponement  of  legis- 
lation :  all  that  could  be  gained  was  a  declaration  that 
there  was  to  be  no  interference  with  religious  opinion 
as  long  as  the  order  established  by  law  was  not  violated. 

From  first  to  last,  so  far,  the  parish  clergy  had  iden- 
tified themselves  with  their  brethren  of  the  third  estate ; 
they  were  all  one  in  this  fundamental  position.  But 
thereupon  began  a  movement  in  public  opinion  which  by 
the  middle  of  October  was  so  strong  that  in  the  mass 
men  no  longer  drew  any  distinction  between  the  two 
grades  of  the  clergy.  The  feeling  of  hatred  for  the 
priests  was  perhaps  ill  founded,  but  it  existed.  It  was 
due  to  the  printed  reports  of  the  ill-omened  banquet  of 
October  second,  given  by  the  Life  Guards  to  the  garri- 
son of  Versailles,  a  force  which  had  been  steadily 
strengthened  and  did  not  conceal  its  reactionary  temper. 
A  well-grounded  opinion  was  abroad  that  the  court 
party  were  intriguing  to  carry  the  king  to  the  fortress 
of  Metz,  whence  he  might  dictate  terms.^  Petitions  to 
this  effect  were  secretly  handed  about  and  numerously 
signed  by  the  clergy.  When  on  the  very  heels  of  this 
intrigue  followed  the  banquet  scene  in  the  theatre, 
where  king,  queen,  and  court  were  all  enthusiastic 
spectators,  during  which  the  commonw^ealth  cockade 
was  trampled  under  foot,  at  least  as  reported,  and  with 
the  white  cockades  of  the  crown  the  black  ones  of  the 
church  were  widely  distributed,  the  fury  and  rage  of 
Paris  burst  all  bounds.  Mob  violence  forced  the  king 
to  Paris. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  which  led  to  a  general 
reprobation  of  the  whole  clergy  as  alike  ecclesiastics  at 
heart,  and  in  particular  of  their  deputies.  The  popu- 
lace began  to  heap  reproach  upon  them,  one  and  all,  ren- 

^  See  the  letter  of  d'Estaine:,  quoted  in  Thicrs's  History  of 
the  French  Revolution,  I.  97-98. 


8o         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


dered  their  persons  unsafe,  and  as  a  corollary  called  for 
the  secularization  of  all  the  estates  upon  which  ecclesi- 
astical power  rested.  Then,  and  among  the  very  men 
who  should  have  endured  unto  martyrdom,  began  prep- 
arations for  the  cowardly  desertion  which  was  in  itself 
a  confession  of  corruption.  The  Archbishop  of  Paris 
(de  Juigne),  the  Bishop  of  Nantes,  and  other  high 
prelates  abandoned  their  posts  and  began  the  exodus 
known  to  history  as  the  Emigration.  The  tide  of  eccle- 
siastical nobles  having  set  forth  toward  lands  hostile  to 
France,  that  of  secular  ones  was  soon  to  turn  thither 
also.    Panic  begets  panic. 

The  ambiguous  language  of  the  Assembly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religious  liberty,  though  it  marked  the  first  stage 
of  victory  for  the  cause,  satisfied  nobody,  and  for  that 
reason  wrought  disaster  in  the  nation.  The  disinte- 
gration of  the  clerical  forces  gave  new  vigor  to  the  rad- 
icals and  emboldened  them  to  dangerous  schemes. 
With  the  anarchists  they  spurred  their  sympathizers  on 
to  disorder ;  disorder  completed  the  dismay  of  the  privi- 
leged classes.  The  finest  sentiments  had  been  ex- 
pressed by  the  sterling  men  of  historic  sense — men  like 
Laborde,  Mirabeau,  de  Castellane,  and  Rabaud-Saint- 
fitienne,  who  was  a  son  of  the  famous  pastor  of  Nimes, 
the  stern  and  logical,  yet  eloquent  and  persuasive  leader 
of  the  Protestants.  Not  one  of  these  men  was  a  fanatic, 
and  since  their  memorable  utterances  not  a  single  idea 
has  been  added  to  the  standard  and  convincing  pleas  for 
religious  liberty ;  it  was  the  Protestant  representative  of 
numberless  martyrs  for  conscience  sake  who,  joining 
himself  to  the  supporters  of  Gregoire,  pleaded  and  won 
the  cause  of  the  outcast  Jews. 

And  it  was  this  passion  for  the  broadest  liberty  which 
likewise  animated  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee.  In 
his  excellent  history  of  its  career,  Durand-Maillane 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  COMMITTEE  8i 


faithfully  depicts  the  behavior  and  sentiments  of  its 
members.^  Feeling  that  heroic  treatment  of  the  ques- 
tions submitted  to  them  was  imperative,  they  literally 
clasped  hands  in  unity.  One  and  all  they  had  suffered 
under  the  same  tyrannical  ''infamy,"  however  widely 
separated  the  degrees  and  kinds  of  tyranny  they  might 
have  experienced;  but  they  undertook  their  task  in 
charity  and  harmony.  Had  the  Assembly  been  like 
minded,  the  course  of  history  would  have  run  in  an- 
other channel.  Neither  fine  words  nor  a  charitable 
temper,  however,  availed  in  it;  the  monarchy  was  sul- 
len, the  privileged  classes  were  either  terrified  or  de- 
liant,  the  masses  were  eager,  the  radicals  were  fanatical. 
Step  by  step  the  management  of  affairs  slipped  from 
the  control  of  the  judicious :  with  painful  regularity 
propositions  fair  in  themselves  were  elaborated  into 
extreme  theories  and  urged  with  defiant  haste.  The 
enthusiasm  of  May  vanished  before  the  gloomy  radical- 
ism of  November. 

^  Histoire  Apologetique  du  Comite  Ecclesiastique  de 
I'Assemblee  Nationale,  Paris,  1791. 


VI 


SEIZURE  AND  SALE  OF  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL ESTATES 


VI 


SEIZURE  AND  SALE  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES 

THx\T  was  a  perilous  appeal  which  the  Bishop  of 
Uzes  (de  Bethizy)  had  made  on  the  night  of 
August  fourth,  when  he  declared  that  clerical  property 
and  privilege,  having  been  granted  by  the  nation,  could 
be  recalled  only  by  the  nation :  it  was  but  a  few  days 
later  that  LaCoste  flatly  said  that  ecclesiastical  property 
belonged  to  the  nation.  On  September  twenty-sixth, 
de  Jesse,  deputy  of  the  nobles  from  Beziers,  in  discuss- 
ing Necker's  proposal  for  radical  measures  of  financial 
reform,  suggested  as  an  immediate  resort  the  superflu- 
ous silver  plate  of  the  churches  and  monasteries,  and 
he  was  supported  by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  Both 
recalled  that  under  the  canon  law  it  could  be  sold  for 
the  poor — a  poverty-stricken  nation  was  surely  poor. 
For  a  time  they  were  left  almost  alone  in  this  posi- 
tion by  their  angry,  contentious  colleagues ;  but  three 
days  afterward  the  offer  was  formally  made  by  the 
archbishop  and  accepted  by  the  Assembly.  The  eccle- 
siastical administrators  of  all  ranks  throughout  all 
France  were  ordered,  in  conjunction  with  the  munici- 
palities, to  draw  up  an  inventory  of  the  absolutely  es- 
sential communion  plate,  keep  it  for  use,  and  to  send  in 
the  rest.  The  estimated  value  of  this  contribution  was 
about  twenty-eight  million  dollars.  Thus,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  all  coherence  among  themselves,  the  clergy 
opened  the  flood-gates  to  a  stream  they  must  have 

85 


86         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


known  would  sweep  away  all  that  the  prelates  desired 
to  preserve.  The  attempted  diversion  of  the  current 
only  deepened  the  channel. 

Second  to  none  of  the  economists,  not  even  to  his 
masters,  Quesnay  and  Turgot,  was  Dupont  de  Ne- 
mours. In  a  memorable  address  which  he  delivered 
on  September  twenty-fourth  he  set  forth  with  imposing 
presence  and  urbane  language  this  thesis :  that  the 
clergy,  having  become  in  process  of  time  the  first  estate 
of  the  realm,  had  established  an  empire  within  the  state 
which  was  no  sooner  strong  than  it  flatly  repudiated 
its  obligations  to  the  state,  and  had  continued  so  to  dp 
for  a  period  of  eighty-three  years.  Within  this  period, 
had  it  contributed  in  proportion  to  its  means,  not  as 
the  people  did,  but  even  so  modestly  as  their  fellows 
in  privilege,  the  nobility,  had  done,  the  state  would 
at  the  moment  be  in  possession  of  five  hundred 
and  forty  million  dollars  as  a  reserve  capital.  The 
corporate  clergy  having  been  overthrown,  the  corpo- 
rate state  was  of  course  its  heir,  lawfully  entitled  not 
merely  to  its  own  due,  but  to  the  entire  heritage. 
What  the  Roman  law  would  have  called  a  deposit  must 
now  return  to  the  true  owner  for  the  maintenance  of 
worship  and  its  ministers ;  for  the  preservation  and  im- 
provement of  public  education  and  charities.  In  sup- 
port of  his  position  he  gave  a  minute  and  laboriously 
combined  table  of  the  annual  deficits  for  eighty-three 
years  past,  caused  separately  and  collectively  by  the 
clergy's  withholding  its  just  contributions;  his  deduc- 
tion he  justified  by  arguments  and  facts  in  appalling 
array.  Twelve  hundred  million  dollars  he  showed  to 
be  the  value  of  this  heritage.^ 

*  The  table  is  given  entire  in  teenth  century  the  religious  as- 

Robinet,  I.  156.    It  is  very  im-  sociations  of  France  have  accu- 

portant  to  note  that  in  the  last  mulated,  according  to  the  offi- 

three   quarters   of   the   nine-  cial  valuation,  about  one  sixth 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  87 


With  the  logic  of  fierce  indignation,  the  nation  was 
now  asking  not  merely  whence  came  this  monstrous, 
swollen  treasure :  but,  what  was  even  more  concisely 
logical,  to  what  uses  were  this  fortune  and  its  income 
put?  As  has  already  been  reiterated,  though  not  with 
the  damning  iteration  which  was  daily  and  almost 
hourly  on  the  lips  and  babbling  tongues  of  the  myriad 
angry  agitators  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
France,  the  overwhelming  mass  was  shamelessly  abused 
for  the  luxurious  living  of  an  overbearing  prelacy. 
Where  should  most  of  that  and  all  the  remainder  have 
rightfully  been  applied  ?  The  answer  was  plain  :  to  the 
alleviation  of  sorrow,  misery,  and  suffering  throughout 
the  realm.  De  Juigne,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  was  known 
as  the  "father  of  the  poor,"  and  there  w^ere  scores  like 
him;  their  lofty  pity  covered  true  hearts  as  they  doled 
their  charitable  pittances  to  their  humbled  and  crushed 
but  embittered  fellow-men  who  existed  in  penury.  But 
by  right,  said  the  radicals,  it  all  belongs  to  the  poor, 
among  whom  these  princely  prelates  should  be  the 
poorest.  And  as  for  the  remnant  of  ecclesiastical 
moneys,  behold  the  shocking  abuses  connected  with 
their  management ! 

It  would  indeed  require  a  pen  dipped  in  gall  and 
pointed  with  nitre  to  depict  the  maladministration  of 
the  public  charities  with  which  the  estate  of  the  clergy 
was  charged,  both  spiritually  and  financially.  Seventy 
years  earlier  Massillon  had  sternly  reminded  the  eccle- 
siastics of  his  diocese  that,  should  the  givers  of  their 
ample  endowments  return  to  earth,  there  would  be  a 


of  this  sum  in  real  estate  alone 
— viz..  two  hundred  and  twenty 
millions.  What  their  personal 
property  in  chattels  and  trea- 
sure may  be  cannot  be  discov- 
ered, but  it  is  thought  to  be 


very  large,  probably  five  times 
the  value  of  their  landed  es- 
tates. Naturally,  such  another 
accumulation  of  mortmains  is 
thought  to  menace  the  state 


88         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


fearful  looking  for  of  judgment.  Since  his  day  mat- 
ters had  gone  from  bad  to  worse,  and  an  eye-witness, 
writing  two  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, asserted  that  the  religious  establishments  con- 
sumed their  revenues  in  luxury,  leaving  children  with- 
out instruction,  the  sick  without  consolation,  and  the 
aged  without  support.  The  unparalleled  increase  of 
population  in  the  environs  of  the  monasteries  common 
fame  attributed,  and  correctly,  to  the  licentiousness  of 
their  inmates.  Even  after  the  abolition  of  money 
tithes,  abbots  and  priors  still  squabbled  with  the  poor 
over  the  possession  of  the  tithe  sheaf.  The  complaints 
and  instructions  (cahiers)  of  the  parishes  have  only 
one  tale  to  tell — that  the  upper  clergy  rolled  in  wealth 
while  the  poor  were  absolutely  destitute.  Some  begged 
the  king  to  confiscate  the  revenues  and  apply  them  to 
their  proper  sources.  The  reports  on  the  hospitals  beg- 
gar all  comparison  for  a  revolting  record  of  misman- 
agement :  corpses  left  indefinitely  in  beds  with  the  liv- 
ing, fetid  Avards,  filthy  operating-rooms,  women  in 
childbirth  crowded  by  threes  and  fours  on  the  same 
couch.^  As  to  the  prisons  and  houses  of  correction, 
they  were  simply  pest-holes  packed  with  diseased  and 
corrupted  humanity  like  negroes  in  the  hold  of  a  slaver, 
wallowing  in  the  infection  of  their  own  filth.  The 
refuges  for  the  insane  were  even  worse.  And  all  these 
institutions  were  thronged  with  fiends  in  the  guise  of 
keepers,  who  jeered  and  mocked  at  the  misfortunes  of 
the  miserable  objects  of  their  brutality.  With  even 
so  bald  an  outline  of  horrors  before  us, — an  outline 
which  can  be  filled  in  with  the  darkest  shadows  and  no 
lights,  which  the  pencil  of  a  Rembrandt  could  shade 
with  storm  and  night  without  suspicion  of  invention, 

'  Ttietey,  L'Assistance  Pub-  lution,  Introduction,  pp.  xxxi.- 
lique  a  Paris  pendant  la  Revo-     xxxiii.   Also  Document  No.  39. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  89 


the  contemporary  official  evidence  being  abundant  and 
irrefragable, — can  we  wonder  that  the  plea  of  the  cler- 
ical deputies  against  confiscating  what  they  were 
pleased  to  call  ''the  goods  of  the  poor"  fell  upon  deaf 
ears  and  hardened  hearts  ? 

No  one  was  more  familiar  with  the  abuses  of  cler- 
ical administration  than  was  a  certain  man  of  the  order. 
He  knew  it  root  and  branch,  in  all  its  departments,  in- 
cluding that  of  public  charity.  Like  scores  of  others, 
he  was  himself  the  victim  of  the  infamous  system;  but 
he  was  more  bitter,  more  able,  and  more  determined 
than  the  rest.  This  man  was  the  youthful  Bishop  of 
Autun,  already  prelate  and  aristocrat  in  one,  later  to  be 
known  as  the  Prince  Talleyrand-Perigord.  Forced, 
against  his  will  and  because  of  a  slight  lameness,  into 
the  ecclesiastical  career,  he  chafed  under  its  restraints, 
and  found  in  the  Revolution  exactly  what  he  needed 
for  his  emancipation.^  This  vindictive  personage  was 
the  mouthpiece  of  a  committee  of  twelve,  appointed 
August  twenty-eighth,  1789,  to  consider  how  security 
was  to  be  found  for  a  loan  of  sixteen  million  dollars. 
Some  of  the  clergy  had  already  offered  as  a  free-will 
contribution  their  own  or  others'  church  estates.  He 
squarely  took  the  ground  of  La  Coste  and  Dupont,  that 
the  nation  should  take  back  its  own.  Planting  himself 
firmly  and  exactly  on  the  ground  of  Dupont's  argu- 
ment, he  proposed,  on  October  tenth,  that  the  principle 
which  had  been  decided  by  the  decree  abolishing  tithes 
be  extended  to  all  church  property. 

His  speech  was  eloquent,  adroit,  and,  to  men  in  the 
temper  of  his  auditors,  convincing.  Already,  on  the 
fifth  and  sixth  of  October,  the  city  mob  had  shown 
its  temper,  as  has  been  previously  related,  and  in  dreary 

^See  his  statements  to  Mme.  de  Remusat,  given  in  her 
Memoires. 


90         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


triumph  had  forced  the  king  to  return  from  Versailles 
to  Paris.  It  was  their  power  which  was  in  reality 
the  sanction  behind  all  of  Talleyrand's  arguments  for 
secularization;  the  Assembly  uneasily  felt  that  the  de- 
bate within  its  walls  was  fast  becoming  a  hollow  form. 
Still,  the  matter  was  postponed  until  the  thirteenth, 
and  on  that  day  Mirabeau,  no  doubt  after  one  or  more 
exhausting  sessions  with  the  feeble  king  and  stubborn 
queen,  brought  in  the  formal  motion  that  the  property 
of  the  clergy  is  the  property  of  the  nation.  Worship, 
he  explained,  was  to  be  maintained  and  the  salaries  of 
priests  were  to  be  a  free  parsonage,  with  garden  at- 
tached, and  twelve  hundred  livres  in  money. 

It  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  France,  although  it 
be,  as  it  is,  the  very  quality  which  has  made  her  the 
schoolmaster  of  the  ages,  that  her  thinkers  can  open 
no  question  for  discussion  without  mounting,  stage  by 
stage,  to  the  origins.  This  is  really  to  discard  the 
experience  of  all  the  ages,  and  to  reduce  the  practical 
logic  of  past  generations  to  the  abstract  and  inconclu- 
sive syllogism  of  one  remote  from  the  facts.  Al- 
ready the  question  not  merely  of  ecclesiastical  property, 
but  of  all  property,  had  been  hotly  debated  in  news- 
papers and  pamphlets.  The  contest  was  now  trans- 
ferred to  oral  discussion  in  the  Assembly  upon  the  fa- 
miliar lines — supporters  of  the  old  system  with  reform, 
extreme  socialistic,  even  communistic,  declarations  by 
the  revolutionaries,  and,  as  usual,  the  mediating  party. 

Mirabeau's  argument  was  very  specious.  Moreover, 
it  was  perfectly  adapted  to  his  audience :  not  so  much 
that  which  was  within  the  walls  of  the  assembly  cham- 
ber as  the  greater  one  without  the  precincts  which 
hung  on  his  words.  His  first  argument  was  drawn 
from  Rousseau,  and  was  utterly  fallacious.  All  prop- 
erty is  based  on  the  written  law  of  society;  what  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  91 

law  gave  to  the  clergy  it  can  take  from  them.  This 
perhaps  would  have  some  validity  in  the  case  of  cor- 
porations, which  are  artificial  persons  created  by  the 
law,  but  it  could  have  none  in  regard  to  natural  persons, 
whose  existence  and  rights  are  independent  of  the  state. 
In  the  last  analysis  even  corporate  persons  are  com- 
posed of  individual  men,  moreover,  and  the  argument 
is  partly  anarchistic.  Mirabeau,  however,  asserted  in 
his  second  argument  that,  as  opposed  to  the  state,  cor- 
porations can  have  no  existence  whatever  *'if  they  have 
ceased  to  be  useful."  This  would  of  course  abolish 
the  church  as  well  as  its  property.  Finally,  pleaded 
the  orator,  since  the  clergy  no  longer  exists  as  an  order, 
it  cannot  own  the  ecclesiastical  estates.  This  was  a 
juristic  non-sequitur ;  for  the  church,  as  such,  and  the 
clergy,  as  an  order,  had  owned  nothing;  the  artificial 
persons,  known  as  parishes,  dioceses,  monasteries,  and 
the  like,  were  seized  of  what  had  in  most  cases  been 
specific  gifts  to  them. 

Most  of  the  high  clericals  were  weak  and  talked  aside 
from  the  facts,  even  suggesting  that  reforms  should 
be  made  "canonically."  Two  of  them,  however,  had 
something  real  to  contribute :  The  Abbe  Maury  merci- 
lessly riddled  the  arguments  of  the  socialists,  who  made 
all  property  rights  dependent  on  state  support;  while 
he  likewise  proved  that  the  separate  pieces  of  the 
church  estate  belonged  to  persons — moral  ones,  but  still 
persons.  Camus,  the  Jansenist,  with  his  precisian  se- 
verity, argued  that  as  the  state  did  not  make  the  church 
corporations,  it  could  not  destroy  them ;  the  obligations 
of  one  to  the  other  were  reciprocal.  The  offer  of  state 
pay  he  regarded  as  an  insult,  for  it  subordinated  the 
church,  which,  if  not  superior,  was  at  least  historically 
coordinate.  Incidentally,  Maury  showed  how  infi- 
nitely more  dangerous  to  the  state  than  the  accumula- 


92         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


tions  of  the  church  were  the  operations  and  unholy 
hoards  of  the  stock-jobbers  (agiotage) ,  about  which 
not  one  word  had  been  said  because  these  unscrupulous 
robbers  meant  to  escape  the  just  penalty  of  their  crimes 
by  outcries  against  the  church.^ 

But  prescription  is  a  poor  cry  at  the  bar  of  revolu- 
tion. The  lower  clergy,  represented  by  Gouttes  and 
Juliet,  emphasized  the  degrading  effect  of  wealth  on 
the  prelates  and  the  consequent  loss  of  influence  by  the 
whole  body.  Petion  interrupted  with  a  cry  that  wealth 
had  ruined  their  morals,  and  there  were  shouts  of 
*'Order,"  but  Camus,  then  in  the  chair,  said  he  could 
not  censure  in  the  rostrum  what  was  printed  all  abroad. 
The  lawyers  Thouret,  Chasset,  and  Garat  showed  that 
an  individual  might  and  did  have  the  imprescriptible 
right  of  property,  but  not  corporations,  especially  one 
so  hostile  to  the  nation,  the  very  law-making  power 
which  upheld  it.  Garat  went  so  far  along  the  path 
of  Rousseau  as  to  declare  that  the  state  could,  if  it 
chose,  abolish  Christianity  and  seek  a  more  moral  re- 
ligion. From  immemorial  times  the  monarchy  had 
controlled  in  various  degrees  the  ecclesiastical  corpora- 
tion; its  successor  could,  if  need  be,  abolish  it  and  sub- 
stitute another. 

It  was  on  October  thirteenth  that  the  weightiest  and 
wisest  speech  of  the  whole  discussion  was  delivered  by 
Malouet.^  Flis  words  were  those  of  the  conciliator, 
the  man  of  historic  instinct  struggling  to  preserve  the 
continuity  of  the  old  regime  with  the  new.  With  the 
followers  of  Rousseau,  however,  he  confused  liberty 


^  These  debates  are  given 
with  sufficient  fulness  in  the 
Archives  Parlementaires,  First 
Series,  Vol.  IX.  Mirabeau's 
most  important  speech  will  be 
found  on  p.  604;  that  of  Tal- 


leyrand— a  summary  never  de- 
livered of  what  he  had  already 
said,  or  said  later — on  p.  649. 

^Archives  Parlementaires,  IX. 
434.  For  the  text,  see  Appen- 
dix I.  infra. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  93 


and  popular  sovereignty,  admitting  that  religion  and 
royalty  were  alike  subject  to  the  omnipotence  of  the 
latter.  But  the  Assembly,  he  pleaded,  had  no  man- 
date from  the  general  will  to  deal  with  so  grave  a  ques- 
tion ;  let  a  commission  be  appointed  to  study  it.  In 
the  end  all  surplusage  of  property  not  required  for  the 
support  of  worship  should  be  handed  to  the  civil  au- 
thorities for  the  public  charities ;  since  poverty  was  the 
curse  of  the  state,  let  the  state  administer  matters  for 
its  own  welfare.  Meantime  no  nominations  should  be 
made  to  abbeys  or  other  sinecures ;  there  should  be  no 
increase  in  the  monastic  establishments. 

The  whole  argument  fell  on  respectful  and  receptive 
ears,  but  it  could  make  no  impression  on  the  clamorous 
mob  which  now  both  held  the  king  a  prisoner  in  his 
own  palace  and  menaced  the  Assembly  in  the  hall  of  the 
archiepiscopal  palace  where  it  was  then  sitting.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  of  October,  1789,  a  sop  was  thrown  to 
Cerberus  in  a  decree  for  the  temporary  suspension  of 
religious  vows.  Two  days  later  the  great  IMirabeau 
came  forth  once  more  and  eloquently  defended  his  first 
proposition.  On  the  thirty-first  the  prelates,  in  affright, 
offered  eighty  million  dollars  toward  the  national  defi- 
cit, and  promised  to  accept  thorough  reforms.  The 
vote  on  this  proposition  was  postponed  for  two  days, 
and  on  the  second  of  these,  November  second,  1789,  the 
mob  appeared,  whether  by  prearrangement  or  not  is 
unknown,  before  the  hall  of  the  Assembly.  As  a  last 
concession  in  the  interest  of  unanimity,  Mirabeau  then 
proposed  an  amendment.  The  decree  should  read  not 
that  church  property  is  national  property,  but  ''is  at  the 
disposal  of  the  nation."  This  was  carried  by  a  major- 
ity of  five  hundred  and  sixty-eight  to  three  hundred 
and  forty-six ;  over  two  hundred  were  absent,  and  forty 
abstained  from  voting. 


94         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


It  was  John  Huss  who  began  the  agitation  for  trans- 
ferring such  ecclesiastical  property  as  was  in  the  shape 
of  landed  domains  to  the  control  of  civil  power,  and  the 
Reformation  on  its  secular  side  was  the  process  where- 
by the  transfer  was  effected.  The  same  proposition 
was  early  enforced  in  France  by  a  pamphlet  published 
in  1 64 1,  one  copy  of  which  is  still  extant  in  the  Musee 
Carnavalet  of  Paris;  its  author  was  an  otherwise  ob- 
scure man,  Frangois  Paulmier.  The  next  statement 
of  the  principle  is  found  in  the  anonymous  volume  en- 
titled ''Autorite  des  Rois,"  written  and  circulated  in 
the  highest  circles  soon  after  the  brochure  of  Paulmier, 
but  not  printed  and  published  until  a  century  later.  It 
is  a  compendium,  by  a  brilliant  jurist,  of  the  theory 
and  practice  of  the  crown  in  this  momentous  matter. 
Property  acquired  under  civil  regulations,  runs  the  ar- 
gument, can  be  alienated  only  likewise,  and  is  held 
subject  to  the  charges  laid  by  the  state;  and  for  the 
expenses  of  the  state  the  sovereign  can  supply  his 
wants,  as,  for  example,  the  public  defense.  This  was 
the  tradition  of  the  old  monarchy  beyond  a  peradven- 
ture,  and  was  published  as  such  by  Machault  in  1749. 
The  Assembly  therefore  was  in  its  heroic  measure  fully 
within  the  limits  of  the  time-honored  claims  of  the 
civil  power  regarding  church  property,  even  though  its 
action  was  based  on  doctrines  unknown  to  the  Roman 
law  as  set  forth  by  the  jurists  of  Louis  XIV.  In  pro- 
viding salaries  for  those  who  would  otherwise  suffer 
by  its  course  it  unfortunately  failed  to  explain  its  rea- 
sons, and  the  conservatives  claimed  that  in  thus  paying 
for  church  services  it  had  merely  entered  into  a  new 
compact  with  an  organization  not  abolished,  but  con- 
tinued on  a  new  basis.  This  was  not  true,  as  was  very 
quickly  proved. 

If  the  Assembly  acted  cautiously  and  historically  in 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  95 


secularizing  the  ecclesiastical  estates,  it  likewise  acted 
moderately  and  wisely,  though  rapidly  and  under  com- 
pulsion, in  the  use  it  made  of  them.  In  judging  we 
must  recollect  that  the  spectre  of  national  bankruptcy 
was  ever  in  the  background.  Its  demands  w^ere  inces- 
sant and  imperative.  The  first  step  in  meeting  them  was 
to  take  possession.  On  November  seventh  Talleyrand 
proposed  that  seals  be  placed  on  the  safes  in  which  were 
deposited  monastic  titles  :  inventories  of  them  were  then 
ordered  to  be  taken ;  on  December  fourth  it  was  moved 
that  the  Assembly  proceed  to  the  sale  of  both  royal 
and  ecclesiastical  domains;  on  December  twentieth  the 
proposition  was  voted;  on  March  sixteenth,  1790,  the 
commune  of  Paris  made  an  offer  for  forty  million  dol- 
lars' worth.  Thus  the  process  w^as  considerately  in- 
augurated, but  the  deed  was  done,  and  it  thoroughly 
aroused  the  angry  passions  of  the  great  ecclesiastics. 

This  exasperation  of  a  powerful  class  was  unfortu- 
nate. It  has  been  claimed  that  it  w^as  unnecessary. 
Possibly  this  is  true.  The  interdiction  of  all  new  foun- 
dations and  of  any  increase  to  those  still  existing, 
together  with  a  process  of  consolidation,  would  have 
furnished  six  million  dollars  at  once,  with  a  prospec- 
tive hundred  and  twenty  more  in  the  immediate  future, 
according  to  ^Malouet  and  his  reforming  supporters, 
men  like  the  Archbishop  of  Aix.  And,  further,  the 
royal  or  civil  foundations  might  have  been  secularized, 
leaving  those  due  to  private  bounty  untouched — such, 
for  example,  as  exist  in  our  own  country.  But  Rous- 
seauism  was  all  abroad,  and  Rousseauism  forbade  such 
a  course ;  the  thought  of  a  free  church  and  a  free  state 
was  as  abhorrent  to  its  devotees  as  it  was  to  those  of 
the  scandalous  infamy  now  doomed  and  already  dis- 
appearing. .  The  financiers  secured,  on  December  twen- 
tieth, the  right  to  sell  both  ecclesiastical  and  royal  do- 


96         THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


mains  to  the  extent  of  eighty  millions  of  dollars  as 
security  for  the  promissory  notes  bearing  five  per  cent, 
interest — the  notorious  assignats  which  in  the  end 
wrought  havoc  to  the  republican  finances. 

It  is  not  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  and  place 
to  see  the  fatal  errors  of  the  Assembly.  Its  initial  in- 
tentions appear  to  have  been  good,  but  good  inten- 
tions without  wisdom  in  conduct  are  the  kind  with 
which  hell  is  paved.  Institutions  which  have  been  the 
growth  of  ages,  whether  political  or  ecclesiastical,  may 
not  be  handled  like  the  abstract  factors  of  a  mathe- 
matical problem;  if  they  are  to  be  reformed,  it  must  be 
by  a  slow  process  of  tentative  changes  based  neither  on 
logic  nor  on  necessity  nor  on  expediency  alone,  al- 
though with  due  regard  to  the  element  of  absolute 
right  which  must  be  continuously  operative.  The  only 
possible  reformer,  moreover,  is  the  friendly  one;  the 
enemies  of  an  institution  can  become  only  radical  revo- 
lutionaries when  they  begin  to  change  it,  our  human 
nature  being  weak  and  selfish  as  it  is.  The  great  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly  were  not  friendly,  as  we  have  seen ; 
many  of  the  most  adroit  were  devotees  of  the  system 
of  natural  religion  expounded  by  Rousseau  in  his 
Smile;  between  them  and  believers  in  a  revealed  re- 
ligion there  could  be  no  peace,  not  even  a  truce.  One 
and  all  the  various  sets  of  reformers  could  deal  moder- 
ately, as  in  a  sense  they  did,  with  the  political  hierarchy. 
For  this  the  reason  is  plain :  as  far  as  knowledge  goes 
there  was  not  far  and  near  in  France  a  handful  of  radi- 
cal democrats  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  But 
moderation  in  regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  was 
almost  impossible  because  there  were  scores  and  hun- 
dreds of  embittered  foes — Gallicans,  Jansenists,  Pro- 
testants, Deists,  and  Atheists.  It  was  natural  that 
men  conservative  in  politics  should  act  as  such  within 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTATES  97 


that  sphere,  and  that  the  same  men,  radical  in  church 
matters,  should  be  ruthless,  as  they  were,  in  deal- 
ing with  the  clergy  and  the  ecclesiastical  domains. 
It  was  religious  radicalism  confronted  by  a  haughty, 
tactless  ecclesiasticism  allied  with  monarchy  which  in 
no  extended  time  created  the  faction  of  radical  demo- 
crats in  politics.  In  this  quick  genesis  appeared  all 
the  elements  which  steadily  continued  to  undermine  the 
whole  structure  of  French  society,  fair  as  the  exterior 
remained,  until  at  the  ripe  but  unexpected  moment  it 
crumbled  into  dust,  to  the  dismay  of  the  civilized 
universe. 


VII 


PRELUDE  TO  THE  CIVIL  CONSTI- 
TUTION OF  THE  CLERGY 


VII 


PRELUDE  TO  THE  CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  OF 
THE  CLERGY 

FEW  things  happen  in  France  at  any  time  without 
the  exhibition  of  a  powerful  dramatic  element. 
Least  of  all  could  the  climax  of  an  attempted  compro- 
mise between  God  and  Belial  be  reached  in  a  seething 
revolutionary  epoch  without  a  display  of  fiery  passion. 
No  more  thrilling  scene  was  ever  unfolded  on  the  floor 
of  a  legislative  body  than  that  which  was  now  to  be 
caused  by  the  motion  of  Dom  Gerle.  Strange  com- 
pound as  he  was  of  Carthusian  monk  and  radical  revo- 
lutionary, he  believed  himself  to  be  taking  a  step  of  sim- 
ple justice  when  he  proposed  his  resolution.  But  his 
friar's  garb  was  like  a  theatrical  costume  in  that  modern 
setting;  the  accents  of  his  voice,  the  attitude  he  struck, 
and  the  well-known  character  of  the  man  were  all  of  a 
histrionic  quality.  The  turmoil  which  ensued,  the  fierce 
and  angry  cries  of  the  radicals,  the  wild  enthusiasm  of 
the  conservatives,  the  hurried  consultations,  the  dismay 
of  the  cautious,  the  swift  resolves,  the  savage  gestur- 
ings,  the  dissolution  of  the  Assembly  into  a  mob,  and 
the  final  disruption  of  the  conservative  elements — 
these  were  of  the  highest  dramatic  force,  because  they 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  process,  the  rise  of  a 
determined  democracy,  as  grim  in  its  political  radical- 
ism as  it  already  was  in  its  ecclesiastical  iconoclasm. 

lOI 


102        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


The  clergy,  occupied  exclusively  with  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  privilege,  had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in 
neither  considering  nor  presenting  what  became  imper- 
ative after  the  abolition  of  tithes,  a  constructive  plan 
for  the  reform  of  ecclesiastical  finances.  The  sac- 
rifice of  the  communion  plate  was  in  a  sense  a  free-will 
gift.  Simultaneously  with  this  voluntary  contribution 
there  arose  discussion  on  the  question  of  paper  money. 
Mirabeau  had  then  implored  further  patriotic  gifts  as  a 
temporary  resource.  The  next  step  was  the  declara- 
tion that  ecclesiastical  property  was  at  the  disposal  of 
the  nation.  Meantime  the  emission  of  paper  money 
continued  to  be  a  topic  of  discussion  throughout 
France.  Then  on  December  fourth  Talleyrand  pro- 
posed that  money  obtained  from  sales  of  the  royal  and 
church  domains  be  applied  toward  securing  the  national 
debt.  Thereupon  this  proposition  became  the  topic 
most  widely  discussed  within  and  without  the  Assem- 
bly. On  the  eighteenth  Treilhard  supported  Talley- 
rand's proposition  in  the  most  powerful  speech  of  an 
epochal  debate.  And  thereupon  ensued  the  measures 
of  alienation  and  seizure  recounted  for  the  sake  of  con- 
tinuity in  the  last  chapter. 

Those  measures  were  in  reality  precipitated  by  the 
startling  occurrences  of  the  nineteenth,  unforeseen 
events  which  brought  above  the  horizon  a  question  hith- 
erto obscured.  Although  the  prelates  shared  the  pub- 
lic disesteem  as  members  of  the  aristocracy,  the  cures 
too,  strangely  enough  as  it  seemed  to  them,  were 
now  held  in  no  consideration.  Having  shown  their 
faith  by  taking  the  earliest  measures  of  relief  for  the 
starving  poor  of  city  and  country,  they  had  laid  aside 
all  remnants  of  mediaevalism  except  their  garb,  had 
been  eager  to  abandon  the  tithes,  to  sacrifice  all  per- 
quisites, such,  for  example,  as  the  surplice  fees  (cas- 
uel),  had  identified  themselves  with  the  third  estate, 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  103 


had  steadily  supported  the  proposition  that  the  nation 
was  bound  to  supervise  the  ecclesiastical  estates  with 
a  view  to  seeing  the  revenues  reach  the  aims  for  which 
they  had  been  destined.  Yet  they  met  with  the  very 
harshest  treatment  on  the  streets  and  in  public  places, 
wherever  they  came  under  the  observation  of  the  Paris 
populace.  Why?  Because  they  could  not  conscien- 
tiously assert  that  church  property  was  national  prop- 
erty, and  would  not.  Nor  as  a  class  could  they  support 
the  view  taken  in  the  act  of  November  second,  that 
ecclesiastical  property  "is  at  the  disposal  of  the  nation." 
The  people  began  to  ask  what  really  were  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  the  discussion.  Treilhard  found  the 
test  of  all  property  in  the  power  of  its  holder  to  alienate 
it,  and  that  crucial  act  the  church  could  not  perform 
with  what  it  claimed  to  possess.  The  deduction  seemed 
clear  to  the  meanest  mind  and  the  whole  argument  was 
to  the  masses  unanswerable.  They  grew,  therefore, 
as  their  want  increased,  more  and  more  bitter  against 
those  who  would  not  yield  to  the  force  of  conviction 
which  they  themselves  felt. 

This  pressure  explains  as  nothing  else  can  what  hap- 
pened on  December  nineteenth.  On  that  day  Treilhard 
presented  what  purported  to  be  the  first  report  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee,  a  paper  outlining  a  plan  of 
work,  and  recommending  as  the  first  step  to  be  taken  the 
entire  abolition  of  religious  vows.  Some  of  the  founda- 
tions already  existing  were  to  be  maintained  as  places  of 
refuge  for  those  desiring  to  continue  the  monastic  life. 
A  moderate  provision  in  money  was  to  be  made  for  the 
men  and  women  who,  having  been  devoted  to  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  cloister,  now  wished  to  reenter  the 
world.  The  chairman  of  the  committee,  the  Bishop  of 
Clermont,  solemnly  declared  that  he  knew  nothing 
whatever  of  the  report  presented,  that  he  had  never  at- 
tended a  single  meeting  of  the  committee  where  such 


104       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


proposals  were  offered,  and  was  a  stranger  to  what  was 
now  laid  before  the  Assembly  in  its  name — viz.,  the  en- 
tire document  with  all  its  proposals.  Thereupon  there 
was  no  outburst  of  honest  indignation  as  might  have 
been  expected,  but  instead,  with  little  or  no  disapproval, 
the  entire  proposition  was  on  the  twentieth  made  a  law. 
There  is  no  indication  that  there  was  any  chicane  or 
fraud  in  connection  with  the  report  except  the  unsup- 
ported statement  of  a  single  man — a  man  who  had 
continuously  denounced,  in  the  prelatical  interest,  all 
measures  to  secure  by  means  of  inventories  accurate 
knowledge  as  to  the  incomes  of  the  ecclesiastical  bene- 
ficiaries.^ So  deep-seated  was  the  distrust  of  him  and 
his  class,  that  coincident  with  the  enactment  of  the  law 
which  virtually  abolished  convents  and  nunneries,  prep- 
aration was  made  for  remodelling  the  committee.  Of 
this  mention  has  already  been  made;  it  was  accom- 
plished on  February  seventh,  1790,  the  result  being  to 
make  it  more  liberal,  in  fact  almost  radical.  On  Feb- 
ruary thirteenth  the  course  recommended  in  the  report 
as  presented  by  Treilhard  was  finally  adopted  by  the 
Assembly.  The  first  great  sale  of  what  had  been  des- 
ignated royal  and  ecclesiastical  lands  was  therefore  a 
sale  largely  of  commendam  properties.  It  was  made  to 
the  commune  of  Paris  a  month  later.  The  administra- 
tive measures  taken  to  consummate  this  important  mea- 
sure brought  forward  the  secular  question.  Both  were 
carefully  debated,  and  when  finally  settled  the  ''mobili- 
zation of  church  lands,"  as  it  was  called,  was  extended 
to  those  of  the  crown,  and  thereupon  the  first  issue  of 
paper  money  was  made  on  the  security  of  a  national 
estate  composed  of  both. 

^  Diirand-Maillane,    Histoire  heard  him  in  the  committee 

Apologetique,  p.  31.    The  au-  approve  the  reform  of  monastic 

thor  flatly  contradicts  the  as-  estabHshments,  even  to  the  con- 

sertions  of  the  bishop.  He  had  fiscation  of  their  estates. 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION 


105 


All  sensible  Frenchmen  had  long  understood  that 
the  involution  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  with  the  national 
finance  was  such  that  a  wise  reticence  on  disputed  and 
tender  points  of  religion  was  the  only  chance  of  pre- 
serving the  essentials.  The  treatment  of  the  monastic 
estates  should  have  further  enforced  the  sagacity  of 
this  view.  But  again  the  fuse  of  the  revolutionary 
bomb  was  lighted  by  the  churchmen  themselves.  They 
were  now  profoundly  alarmed.  It  could  no  longer  be 
a  question  of  privilege :  it  was  something  truly  vital 
that  was  in  the  balance — viz.,  whether  or  not  there  was 
to  be  any  state  church  at  all  in  France;  and  if  so,  was 
it  to  be  a  Roman  church?  The  very  idea  created  a 
panic,  and  when  monasticism  was  denounced  on  the 
floor  as  a  form  of  civil  suicide,  the  clerics  felt  the  foun- 
dations trembling  beneath  them.  This  language 
seemed  profane.  It  was  in  such  a  moment  of  despair 
that,  with  unconsidered  haste,  on  February  seventh, 
1790,  the  Bishop  of  Nancy  called  on  the  Assembly  to 
declare  Roman  Catholicism  the  religion  of  the  state  and 
nation.  A  strong  majority  asserted  its  devotion  to  the 
state,  but  evaded  the  implied  religious  test  by  voting  the 
previous  question.  Still  another  element  of  terror 
struck  down  the  hearts  of  the  clergy — viz.,  the  new- 
attitude  of  the  Assembly  toward  the  Protestants.  No 
longer  regarded  with  mere  toleration,  they  were  at  last 
in  the  forefront;  on  March  tenth  Rabaud  St.-£tienne, 
son  of  the  proscribed  Protestant  pastor  of  Nimes,  suc- 
ceeded Montesquiou  as  chairman  of  the  Assembly;  as 
he  wrote  to  his  father  in  pardonable  exultation,  ''The 
president  of  the  Constituent  [Assembly]  is  at  your 
feet."  1 


^  Rabaud  was  noted  for  his 
refinement,  learning,  and  elo- 
quence. For  the  latter  gift 
many  compared  him  withMira- 


beau.  He  was  a  prime  mover 
in  the  agitation  which  secured 
the  edict  of  tolerance.  It  is 
interesting   to   note   that  the 


io6        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


These  were  the  successive  steps  which  led  up  to  the 
crisis.  The  Roman  Church  had  been  divorced  from 
the  French  nation.  The  machinery  of  government 
had  stripped  it  first  of  its  tithes  and  now  of  its  estates. 
The  hierarchy  and  the  organization  still  existed,  and  an 
implied  contract  had  been  made  which  was  to  assure 
the  support  of  worship.  But  what  was  the  status  of 
Roman  Catholicism  as  a  religion?  Was  it  henceforth 
to  be  tolerated  as  one  of  several  sects,  all  alike  indiffer- 
ent to  representatives  of  the  people  governing  now  by 
the  rule  of  a  majority  hostile  not  merely  to  ecclesi- 
asticism,  but  to  the  Catholic  religion  itself — a  majority 
which  had  chosen  a  Protestant  to  preside  at  the  coun- 
cils of  the  nation  ?  On  the  thirteenth  the  Abbe  Montes- 
quiou,  struggling  in  vain  to  impress  a  determined  au- 
dience against  its  will,  left  the  desk  with  a  despairing 
appeal  for  the  divine  protection.  His  words  were  a 
wail  which  profoundly  moved  many  hearts.  The  su- 
perserviceable  Carthusian,  Dom  Gerle,  was  completely 
overcome  and  outraged.  He  leaped  to  his  feet  and, 
denouncing  the  charges  of  his  predecessor  against  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee  as  a  vile  calumny,  moved  that 
inproof  of  his  assertion  the  Assembly  decree  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  the  dominant  legal  church  of  France. 
It  was  then  that  pandemonium  broke  loose.  Conser- 
vatives cheered  the  proposition  as  coming  from  an 
advanced  opponent;  the  moderates  and  radicals  alike 


watchword  proposed  by  him 
for  the  French  Revolution  was 
"Liberty,  Equality,  Property,"  a 
cry  almost  identical  with  that 
heard  in  England  during  the 
revolution  of  1688.  This  was 
in  July,  1789;  in  August  his 
was  the  most  eloquent  of  the 
speeches  supporting  Castel- 
lane's  motion,  the  refrain  being 
"not  tolerance,  but  liberty."  He 


desired  a  monarchy  with  the 
suspensive  veto  and  a  single 
legislative  chamber.  He  was 
delegate  for  Nimes  in  the  As- 
sembly, and  for  Aube  in  the 
Convention.  His  special  inter- 
ests were  education  and  the 
militia.  He  voted  for  the  ban- 
ishment of  Louis  XVL,  and 
proposed  the  public-school  law. 


CIVIL  COXSTITUTIOX 


107 


protested,  the  latter  in  sneering  insincerity,  that  no 
such  platitude  need  be  asserted.  Marshalling  all  their 
sympathizers,  the  reformers  forced  an  adjournment.^ 

The  night  was  one  of  turmoil.  The  palace  of  the 
Tuileries  was  closed,  its  guards  were  redoubled,  and 
the  radical  press  breathed  fire  and  slaughter  against  all 
clericals.  The  Catholics  discussed  and  canvassed,  the 
Jacobins  fiercely  denounced  Dom  Gerle,  and,  overawing 
him  by  fierce  argument,  secured  his  promise  to  withdraw 
the  motion.  Next  morning  terrific  disputes  began  at 
once.  From  the  tactical  standpoint  it  was  bad  taste  for 
Montesquiou  to  have  taken  the  attitude  of  sentimental- 
ity under  persecution,  but  it  was  fatal  for  Gerle  to  have 
forced  the  issue  as  he  did.  There  could  now  be  but  one 
question,  ''Should  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman 
religion  dominate,  or  should  it  be  subjugated  and  re- 
duced to  the  plane  of  a  sect?''  ]\Iirabeau  struggled  to 
hold  the  middle  course :  but,  swearing  at  first  to  die  as  a 
martyr  unless  Catholicism  were  declared  the  national 
religion,  he  recoiled  to  almost  the  antipodal  extreme  be- 
fore an  appeal  to  the  same  end  which  was  made  by  a 
deputy  and  based — shocking  plea! — on  the  oath  of 
Louis  XIV.  taken  on  January  twenty-fifth,  1675,  ^ 
tury  before !  This  was  suicidal  folly.  Mirabeau  was 
furious.  With  an  awe-inspiring  gesture  the  leonine 
orator  pointed  from  the  tribune  at  a  window,  easily 
visible,  whence,  he  reminded  his  audience,  another  king, 
desiring  to  mingle  temporal  with  spiritual  interests,  had 
signalled  by  the  discharge  of  an  arquebus  for  the  mas- 
sacre of  Saint  Bartholomew. 

Still  his  meaning  was  plain.  Known  to  be  daily 
in  consultation  with  the  court,  he  clearly  implied  that 

^  De  Pressense,  The  Church  and  shall  forever  remain  the 

and    the    French    Revolution.  religion  of  the  nation,  and  that 

Engl.   Trans,   by   Stroyan,  p.  its  worship  shall  alone  be  au- 

109 ;  Gerle*s  motion  was,  "is  thorized." 


io8        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


while  others  had  been  faithless,  and  while  therefore 
the  historic  argument  was  worthless,  Louis  XVL  was 
a  man  who  could  be  trusted  not  to  commingle  spir- 
itualities and  temporalities,  a  possibility  in  which  the 
party  of  the  Revolution  would  not  believe.  Mirabeau 
was  hooted  down.  Another  and  extreme  conservative 
called  attention  to  the  presence  of  the  guards  as  a  mea- 
sure of  intimidation,  a  menace  to  free  discussion;  but 
he  asserted  that  he  himself  was  not  awed — not  he. 
There  were  roars  of  laughter.  Lafayette  was  ap- 
plauded to  the  echo  when  he  asseverated  the  devotion 
of  his  guardsmen  to  the  Assembly;  they  would  shed 
the  last  drop  of  their  blood  to  see  its  decrees  executed, 
he  declared.  And  so  with  intermingled  hoots,  cheers, 
and  laughter  was  taken  a  momentous  step.  The  As- 
sembly refused  to  vote  Catholicism  the  national  re- 
ligion. 

After  hours  of  excited  talk  the  majority  finally  suc- 
ceeded, therefore,  in  passing  a  substitute  to  Gerle's  mo- 
tion. It  was  offered  by  Rochefoucauld.  ''The  National 
Assembly,  considering  that  it  neither  has  nor  can  have 
any  power  over  consciences  and  religious  opinions,  that 
the  majesty  of  religion  and  the  profound  respect  which 
is  due  to  it  do  not  permit  it  to  become  the  subject  of 
deliberation;  considering,  further,  that  the  attachment 
of  the  National  Assembly  to  the  Catholic,  Apostolic, 
and  Roman  worship  should  not  be  put  in  doubt  at  the 
very  moment  when  this  worship  is  about  to  be  placed 
by  it  in  the  first  class  of  the  public  expenses,  and  when 
by  a  unanimous  movement  it  has  proved  its  respect  in 
the  only  way  which  could  be  suitable  to  the  character  of 
the  National  Assembly,  has  decreed,  and  does  decree, 
that  it  neither  can  nor  ought  to  deliberate  on  the  motion 
proposed,  and  that  it  is  about  to  resume  the  order  of  the 
day  concerning  the  church  domains." 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  109 


The  high  clericals,  thirty-three  bishops  and  twenty- 
six  abbots  and  canons,  then  left  the  hall ;  with  them 
went  seventy-nine  parish  priests.  Organizing  a  meet- 
ing, they  at  once  drew  up  a  passionate  address  and  pro- 
test.^ They  asserted  in  it  that  under  instructions  they 
had  come  to  Versailles  for  the  purpose  of  securing  as 
an  article  of  the  constitution  *'a  declaration  that  the 
Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion  is  the  religion 
of  the  state,  and  the  only  one  w^hich  ought  in  this  king- 
dom to  enjoy  the  solemnity  of  public  w^orship."  Their 
attempts  having  been  fruitless  and  liberty  of  speech 
having  been  denied  them,  they  now  despaired  of  suc- 
cess and  wished  so  to  inform  their  constituents.  After 
the  protest  they  resumed  their  seats,  but  in  the  main 
kept  silence.  A  single  proposition  w^as  timidly  put 
forward  by  one  of  the  archbishops  (Boisgelin),  that 
the  clergy  advance  eighty  million  dollars  and  be  per- 
mitted to  retain  control  of  the  remaining  ecclesiastical 
funds.  But  the  idea  could  not  even  get  a  hearing.  The 
Assembly  then  w^ent  forward  with  its  work.  On  April 
fourteenth  the  fateful  decree  was  finally  passed;  the 
property  ''at  the  disposal  of  the  nation"  was  assigned 
to  the  civil  authorities  of  the  departments;  tithes  were 
to  cease  after  January  first,  1791 ;  salaries  were  to  be 
paid  to  the  clergy  in  money ;  relief  was  voted  to  the 
poor  and  to  those  who  really  suffered  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  monasteries. 

Something  should  be  said  in  passing,  if  only  a  word, 
concerning  the  lofty  aspirations  of  the  Assembly  in 
dealing  with  poverty;  for  they  display  its  enlighten- 
ment and  intelligence  as  much  as  any  of  its  enactments. 
The  committee  declared  the  basis  of  general  well-being 

^  For  the  scenes  of  this  de-  Ferrieres,  Memoires,  Livre  V. 
bate,    see    the    Moniteur    for  221  ;  Hesmivy  d'Auribeau,  Ex- 
April,  1700;  Buchez  et  Roiix,  trait  dcs  Memoires,  I.  181. 
Histoire  Parlementaire,  V.  345  ; 


no       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


to  be  the  soil,  and  since  agriculture  had  suffered  be- 
yond measure  in  the  extravagant  appropriation  of  land 
to  pleasure,  while  at  the  same  time  undue  pressure 
was  brought  to  bear  for  the  increase  of  population  as 
a  military  resource,  their  first  effort  must  be  to  attract 
the  four  or  five  millions  of  worthy  poor  toward  the 
fields.  Professional  paupers,  sedentary  and  vagrant, 
must  be  forced  to  work  under  severe  penalties.  The 
first  class  of  worthy  poor,  abandoned  children  or  found- 
lings, must  be  removed  from  the  vast  houses  of  refuge, 
which  were  nothing  more  or  less  than  training  schools 
of  pauperism.  Adults  must  be  stimulated  to  exertion 
by  the  prospect  of  possession,  and  to  this  end  the  newly 
acquired  domains  of  the  state  should  be  sold  in  very 
small  parcels  under  the  easiest  conditions.  These  mea- 
sures taken,  a  vast  scheme  of  relief  for  the  infirm  and 
aged  must  be  devised,  and  a  thorough  reform  of  abuses 
in  hospitals  and  prisons  must  be  undertaken.^  Severe 
laws  against  begging  must  be  enacted,  the  sedentary 
paupers  must  be  kept  under  surveillance  and  vagrants 
confined  in  houses  of  correction,  the  entire  system  to 
be  administered  with  a  view  to  reforming  the  inmates. 
Every  provision  must  be  made  to  prevent  the  contagion 
of  vice  as  much  as  the  contagion  of  disease. 

The  committee  was  just  as  strong  practically  as 
theoretically.  Commissions  of  investigation  probed 
ruthlessly  every  sore,  and  finding  that  about  one  mil- 
lion— almost  a  twentieth — of  the  population  required 
aid,  either  as  sick,  infirm,  aged,  or  children,  as  pau- 
pers able  to  work  and  as  beggars  and  vagabonds,  they 
appropriated  about  eleven  million  dollars  from  the 
revenues  of  the  new  domains  for  hospitals,  for  the 
helpless,  for  shops  to  train  paupers  into  habits  of  work, 

^  The  most  important  docu-  net,  Mouvement  Religieux,  I., 
ments  may  be  found  in  Robi-     pp.  220  et  seqq. 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION 


1 1 1 


for  the  repression  of  begging,  and  for  administration. 
Two  millions  per  annum  were  set  aside  as  a  reserve. 
The  work  was  laborious  and  slow,  but  in  the  end  it 
was  thoroughly  done.  The  foundation  thus  laid,  the 
structure  of  the  modern,  scientific,  and  for  the  most 
part  admirable  system  of  public  charities  has  been 
growing  on  the  same  lines  for  more  than  a  century. 

The  destruction  of  the  prelatical  aristocracy  in  the 
interest  of  the  poor  marks  a  double  social  process,  a 
levelling  down  and  a  levelling  up.  It  is  remarkable  as 
a  revolutionary  phase  that  during  this  very  period 
the  third  estate  was  busy  in  the  effort  to  make  itself  a 
privileged  class,  or  at  least  to  confirm  itself  as  such. 
Amid  the  contradictions  of  thought  and  conduct  which 
characterize  the  time,  and  probably  because  of  them, 
arose  the  new  and  most  modern  political  concept — a 
concept  that  w^as  not  inaugurated,  but  certainly  was 
confirmed  by  the  next  move  of  the  Assembly  in  dealing 
with  the  ecclesiastical  question,  the  idea  of  manhood 
suffrage.  The  third  estate  was,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Revolution,  what  Sieyes  declared  it  to  be — the  na- 
tion. Numerically  considered,  about  one  thirtieth  of 
the  population  was  not  comprised  within  it.  IMorally, 
however,  its  power  was  exerted  by  comparatively  few, 
those  technically  known  as  the  burghers — that  is,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  landed  proprietors  and  farmers,  all  the 
professional  classes,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
The  conception  of  equality  was  very  clear  to  these,  in 
the  sense  that  they  were  equal  to  those  above  them; 
but  they  never  dreamed,  nor  even  did  Rousseau  im- 
agine, the  doctrine  of  an  equality  comprising  the  great 
masses  who  w^orked  with  their  hands  for  their  daily 
bread  and  possessed  no  accumulated  capital  whatever. 
These  latter  proletarians  did  not  themselves  conceive 
that  they  could  possess  equal  rights,  for  they  knew  they 


112        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


had  not  equal  responsibilities.  The  municipal  revolu- 
tion consequent  to  the  fall  of  the  Bastille  was  inaugu- 
rated by  the  wealthy  bourgeoisie,  who  furnished  the 
intellectual  power,  while  the  proletarians  lent  the  work 
of  their  hands  and  carried  it  to  a  successful  completion. 

Accordingly  no  amazement  was  expressed,  and  but 
a  very  mild  opposition  was  made,  to  the  principle  laid 
down  almost  immediately  by  Sieyes  in  1789,  that  there 
were  two  classes  of  rights,  natural  and  civil,  or,  as  he 
designated  them,  active  and  passive.  Women,  chil- 
dren, foreigners,  in  short  all  who  contributed  nothing  to 
the  corporate  funds  of  the  state,  possessed  merely  civil 
or  passive  rights;  equality  of  all  rights  existed  only 
among  active  citizens,  they  alone  had  political  rights, 
the  right  to  exercise  the  suffrage.  After  long  debates, 
the  Assembly,  accepting  this  theory,  enacted  on  Decem- 
ber twenty-second,  1789,  that  no  person  could  vote  ex- 
cept a  Frenchman  twenty-five  years  old,  domiciled  in 
the  voting  district  for  a  year,  paying  a  direct  tax  worth 
three  days'  wages,  and  who  was  not  a  hired  servant. 
The  question  of  three  days'  wages  at  once  presented 
difficulties,  and  they  were  met  by  adopting  a  maximum 
of  twenty  sous  a  day,  a  modification  which  tended  to 
enlarge  the  suffrage  considerably.  Some  exceptions  to 
the  law  were  likewise  made,  such  as  national  guards 
who  had  served  at  their  own  expense,  and  priests. 

As  to  who  should  be  eligible  for  election  the  debate 
was  again  long  and  vigorous,  bringing  to  light  a. more 
powerful  and  numerous  body  of  men  ready  to  exhibit 
the  democratic  temper  than  the  other  measure  had  done. 
It  was,  however,  easily  settled  that  for  all  offices  up  to 
that  of  membership  in  the  municipal  assemblies  the  can- 
didate should  pay  a  direct  tax  of  ten  days'  wages.  For 
membership  in  the  National  Assembly  the  committee 
proposed  not  that  the  candidate  should  be  a  landed  pro- 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION 


113 


prietor  as  many  urged,  but  that  he  should  pay  a  land 
tax  in  some  form  worth  a  silver  mark,  or  four  ounces 
of  silver.  This  was  voted  only  after  very  considerable 
opposition,  and  in  the  debate  the  radicals  began  to  utter 
strong  democratic  sentiments.  They  were  met,  how- 
ever, by  overpowering  expressions  of  dissent,  and  the 
first  revolutionary  constitution  was  based  on  a  suffrage 
limited  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  well-to-do  bur- 
ghers. 

But  the  plan  could  not  be  made  to  work.  Before  it 
was  put  into  operation  many  of  the  most  enlightened 
and  moderate  leaders  of  opinion  changed  their  minds, 
and  many  admirable  remonstrances  were  read  before 
one  and  another  of  the  municipal  assemblies,  notably 
one  written  by  Condorcet  and  sent  up  to  the  National 
Assembly  by  the  Paris  commune.  Opposition  was 
particularly  strong  in  the  capital  because  many  of  the 
high-class  artisans  paid  not  a  direct,  but  only  a  cap- 
itation tax.  The  scheme  was  first  put  into  operation 
elsewhere,  and  in  many  of  the  villages  it  was  found 
that  there  were  not  enough  ''eligibles"  to  fill  the  offices. 
Some  of  the  communes  evaded  the  provisions  of  the  law 
in  order  to  secure  a  local  government,  and  in  Marseilles 
the  voting-lists  were  prepared  without  any  regard  to  it. 
In  some  of  the  reported  cases  there  is  an  element  of  ab- 
surdity, always  fatal  in  the  French  mind  to  any  device ; 
for  example,  a  village  surgeon  refused  to  educate  his 
boy  for  his  own  profession,  since  the  cost  would  so  re- 
duce his  means  as  to  render  the  practitioner  himself  in- 
eligible for  office.  Yet  it  is  likely  that  the  people  of  the 
departments  would  have  proved  docile.  The  overthrow 
of  the  system  came  when  Paris  saw  it  in  operation. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Marat  was  organized  the  re- 
sistance to  its  aristocratic  inequalities,  and  by  June, 
1790,  there  was  a  numerous  party  favoring  universal 


114        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


suffrage.  This,  with  the  situation  in  which  the  Pro- 
testants and  others  outside  the  fold  of  the  Roman 
Church  now  found  themselves,  created  a  movement  of 
public  opinion  which  determined  the  next  step  taken 
by  the  Assembly  with  regard  to  the  clergy  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church.^ 

It  is  not  possible  to  read  the  hearts  of  men,  but  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  important  reasons  for  rejecting 
the  motion  of  Dom  Gerle  was,  that  ever  since  the  open- 
ing sessions  of  the  Assembly  partial  measures,  not 
merely  of  tolerance  but  of  liberty,  had  been  adopted 
one  by  one  with  reference  to  the  considerable  body  of 
French  dissenters,  who  had  so  long  been  under  the  ban 
of  allied  church  and  state.  Down  to  the  Edict  of 
Toleration  the  exercise  of  Protestant  worship  was  ut- 
terly proscribed  throughout  France.  After  the  revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  able  and  energetic 
fled  to  bestow  the  benison  of  their  character,  skill,  and 
refinement  upon  other  lands ;  of  the  few  who  remained 
the  feeble  became  delirious  and  fanatical  enthusiasts, 
and  the  timid  outwardly  conformed.  But  in  171 5, 
shortly  before  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  began  the  won- 
derful movement,  under  Antoine  Court,  which  re- 
strained fanaticism,  but  infused  courage  into  the  faint- 
hearted. It  was  a  serious  revival,  with  the  manifest 
result  of  gathering  the  scattered  remnant  into  conven- 
ticles and  organizing  them  under  elders,  pastors,  and 
presbyteries.  Although  worship  was  conducted  under 
incredible  difficulties,  often  in  remote  groves,  caves,  or 
deserted  houses,  under  the  safeguard  of  unarmed  sen- 
tinels, yet  organization  was  maintained,  marriages 
were  celebrated,  funerals  were  decently  conducted,  and 
the  sacraments  were  administered  with  much  regu- 

^  For  a  concise  account  of  the  Politique  de  la  Revolution 
debates,  see  Aulard,  Histoire     Frangaise,  pp.  60  et  seqq. 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  115 


larity.  The  legality  of  the  marriages  and  the  question 
of  property  succession  soon  came  before  the  parlc- 
mcnts  or  courts  of  law.  Every  political  device  and 
legal  fiction  was  employed,  with  philanthropic  zeal  and 
ingenuity,  to  avoid  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  there 
was  a  Protestant  Church  in  France.  But  the  fact  was 
stubborn,  and  too  frequent  recourse  was  had  to  atro- 
cious persecution  for  repression.  This  was  done  in 
obedience  to  the  shocking  edict  of  1724,  which  con- 
demned pastors  to  death,  male  Protestants  to  the  gal- 
leys, women  to  imprisonment  for  life,  all  these  and 
many  other  frightful  penalties  to  be  accompanied  by 
confiscation  of  property. 

Persecution  reached  its  height  about  1755.  There- 
after intelligent  public  opinion  asserted  itself  more  and 
more,  until  a  certain  degree  of  toleration  became  essen- 
tial. It  was  this  which  finally  found  expression  in  the 
edict  of  1787,  a  beneficent  measure  which  enabled  the 
scattered  congregations  to  meet,  still  in  private  but  in 
security,  and  the  organization  to  do  its  work  without 
fear  except  from  the  influences  of  a  social  ostracism 
more  or  less  complete.  The  Protestants  in  Paris  had 
met  irregularly  in  the  chapels  of  the  embassies  from 
Protestant  lands,  notably  that  of  Holland,  in  which 
there  was  a  regular  chaplain,  an  able  man  whose  name 
was  Marron.  Under  him,  with  the  active  assistance 
of  Rabaud  St.-£tienne,  a  congregation  was  at  once  or- 
ganized. It  contained  many  men  of  mark ;  some  of 
them,  like  Cambon,  Jean-Bon,  Saint-Andre,  Lombard- 
Lachaux,  and  Vouiland,  followed  the  fortunes  of  the 
republic  to  the  end ;  others,  like  Claviere,  Barnave,  La- 
source,  Servieres  de  la  Lozere,  Bernard  de  St.-Affrique, 
Johannot,  and  Rabaud  himself,  having  enlisted  for  re- 
form and  not  for  revolution,  withdrew  when  their  ends 
were  gained.    IMarat  was  not  a  member,  although  he 


ii6        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


was  of  Protestant  origin  and  had  lived  for  some  time  in 
Edinburgh;  he,  with  his  successor  Robespierre,  repre- 
sented the  type  of  fanatical  and  extreme  Calvinistic 
mind,  which  so  easily  identified  itself  with  the  authori- 
tarian tyranny  of  Rousseauism.  It  was  not  until  June 
seventh,  1789,  however,  when  the  Revolution  was 
launched,  that  the  Protestants  were  permitted  to  rent  a 
public  hall  and  hold  public  services.  From  that  mo- 
ment, with  a  single  interruption  to  be  described  later, 
they  have  steadily  increased  in  numbers  and  have  been 
in  the  enjoyment  of  complete  religious  liberty.  On 
December  twenty-first,  1789,  the  deputy  Brunet  de 
Latuque  proposed  that  all  "non-Catholics"  be  eligible 
for  all  public  duties  and  offices  like  other  citizens ;  and 
on  the  twenty-fourth  this  was  voted  as  far  as  the  Prot- 
estants were  concerned.  And  immediately,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  came  to  the  very  forefront ;  their  views  were 
heard  with  respect,  their  administrative  abilities  were 
recognized,  and  they  were  employed  in  the  highest 
public  offices.^ 

But  the  Jews  were  non-Catholics  too,  as  the  unfor- 
tunate phrase  ran,  and  bigotry  began  its  work  the 
moment  liberty  for  all  forms  of  worship  was  demanded. 
Even  Mirabeau  would  not  support  the  sweeping  posi- 
tion taken  by  Gregoire  and  other  apostles  of  the  Jews 
when  by  a  final  effort  he  secured  the  emancipation  of 
the  Protestants.  But  a  vigorous  agitation  without, 
both  in  Paris  and  in  the  departments,  made  itself 
strongly  felt  within  the  hall  of  the  Assembly,  and 
finally  the  Paris  commune  made  a  formal  representa- 
tion in  behalf  of  the  Paris  Jews.  x\fter  some  hesitancy 
the  Assembly,  on  January  twenty-eighth,  1790,  ex- 
tended the  law  of  December  twenty-fourth  to  such  of 
the  Sephardim  Jews,  known  as  Portuguese,  Spanish,  or 
'  De  Felice,  Histoire  des  Protestants  de  France,  p.  549. 


CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  117 


Avignon  Jews,  as  had  been  born  in  France.  These  had 
long  been  distinguished  as  having  settled  habits,  recog- 
nized names,  and  trustworthy  characters.  The  Asch- 
kenazim  Jews,  the  German  Jews  of  Alsace-Lorraine  and 
the  northeast  generally,  were  types  of  what  a  long  and 
brutal  persecution  makes  out  of  men.  They  were  sly, 
bore  no  family  names,  concealed  their  occupations  of 
peddling  and  money-lending,  and  evaded  the  grasp  of 
the  law  by  easy  migration  back  and  forth  across  the 
frontier.  It  w^as  some  years  before  race  hatred  and 
prejudice  were  calmed  and  they  obtained  any  recogni- 
tion whatsoever ;  they  wxre  not  actually  brought  under 
the  regulations  or  within  the  pale  of  civilized  life  until 
Napoleon  laid  his  heavy  hand  upon  them. 

But  a  year  after  the  emancipation  of  the  Huguenots, 
on  December  tw^enty-fourth,  1790,  the  Lutheran  and 
Swiss  Protestants  living  within  the  borders  of  France 
received  the  same  rights  as  the  Calvinistic,  native  Pro- 
testants had  received — the  rights,  namely,  of  complete 
citizenship.  In  a  sense  the  Protestants  were  better 
treated  than  other  Christians,  their  ecclesiastical  prop- 
erty being  in  a  measure  exempted  from  the  laws  con- 
cerning that  of  Catholics.  It  seems  like  a  curiosity  of 
history  that  simultaneously  with  the  removal  of  the  ban 
from  French  Protestants  in  December,  1789,  French 
comedians  for  the  first  time  received  civil  and  political 
rights.  So,  too,  did  all  men  of  color  residing  in 
France,  but  not  those  of  the  colonies. 

These  events  may  be  considered  as  having  formed 
both  the  prelude  and  the  immediate  cause  of  the  next 
step  taken  by  the  Assembly  in  dealing  with  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  In  abolishing  the  tithes  and  secularizing  the 
church  estates,  they  confiscated  the  entire  ecclesiastical 
temporality.  Forced  thus  into  the  dilemma  of  either 
state  or  voluntary  support  for  worship,  they  obeyed  a 


ii8        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


blind  instinct  and  chose  the  former.  But  the  struggle 
was  so  severe  that  every  element  of  aristocratic  privi- 
lege, however  slight,  was  mercilessly  exposed  to  public 
view  and  criticised  without  pity.  The  new  idea  of 
equality  among  men,  without  regard  to  estate  or  con- 
dition, began  to  work  powerfully  in  all  classes,  creating 
a  political  democracy,  modifying  the  views  of  all  Chris- 
tians except  the  Ultramontanes,  and  thus  opening  the 
way  for  an  effort  at  ecclesiastical  democracy. 


VIII 


THE  CIVIL'  CONSTITUTION  OF 
THE  CLERGY 


VIII 


THE  CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  ^ 

ALTHOUGH  there  was  at  bottom  a  radical  contra- 
l\.  diction  between  the  theories  of  a  secular  aristoc- 
racy and  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  the  one  being 
based  on  birth  and  privilege,  the  other  on  choice  and 
ability,  yet  they  had  long  been  identified  in  France,  as 
we  have  seen,  by  the  selection  of  secular  aristocrats  for 
the  upper  grades  of  the  religious  hierarchy.  This  fact 
had  utterly  confused  the  inherent  and  basic  distinction 
between  the  two  as  far  as  the  masses  of  the  people  were 
concerned.  The  swift  march  of  the  nation  toward  po- 
litical democracy,  it  might  be  supposed,  should  have 
awakened  public  opinion  to  the  necessity  of  applying 
the  same  principles  in  the  solution  of  the  church  ques- 
tion; and  this  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee  earnestly, 
honestly  desired  to  accomplish.  It  is  well  to  recall,  as 
somewhat  mitigating  the  blame  of  its  failure,  a  remark- 
able historical  parallel.  By  a  due  consideration  of  its 
attitude  of  mind  and  its  efforts  we  may  fairly  judge 
the  members,  and  thereby  alone. 

The  representative  bodies  then  familiar  to  the  civil- 
ized world  were  the  American  Congress  and  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament.  The  French  delegates  did  not  doubt 
that,  like  the  English  Houses  and  like  the  Conti- 

*  The    references    for    this     mentaires.  the   Moniteur,  and 
chapter    aje    the    debates    as     the  Histoire  Parlementaire. 
given  in  the  Archives  Parle- 


121 


122        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


nental  Congress,  their  own  Assembly  was  a  truly  con- 
stituent sovereign  body — in  legal  theory,  the  French 
nation.  They  were  justified  in  their  opinion,  for  so 
far  in  history  no  convention  parliament  had  sat  whose 
credentials  entitled  it  to  be  considered  more  truly  na- 
tional and  representative.  Now,  as  was  well  known, 
the  Long  Parliament,  under  the  influence  of  Selden, 
had  formed  an  ecclesiastical  establishment,  Presbyte- 
rian in  all  but  name,  completely  subordinate  to  the  secu- 
lar power.  The  Convention  Parliament  which  restored 
Charles  IL  to  the  throne,  though  royalist  out  and  out, 
had  no  thought  of  restoring  an  aristocratic  prelacy : 
that  which  made  William  and  Mary  joint  sovereigns 
of  the  three  kingdoms  had  subordinated  the  established 
churches  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  to  the 
state.  The  various  Constitutional  conventions  of  the 
United  States,  federal  and  State,  had  gravitated  to- 
ward the  m.ost  extreme  secular  view  of  temporal  su- 
premacy, regarding  all  religious  corporations  as  in  no 
respect  different  under  the  law  from  those  of  a  volun- 
tary secular  nature.  Was  it  to  be  expected  that  a  su- 
preme, active  Assembly  like  that  of  France  would  do 
less  or  take  a  less  advanced  position? 

True,  the  French  thought  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  in  some  respects  far  in  advance  of  English  thought 
in  the  seventeenth,  but  it  was  far  behind  contempora- 
neous American  thought.  It  could  grasp  the  notion  of 
equality  between  church  and  state  as  antiquated;  it 
could  not  grasp  the  notion  of  a  legal  relation  between 
the  free  exercise  of  religion  and  governmental  admin- 
istration as  a  guarantee  of  the  former ;  it  could  not  go 
further  than  the  concept  of  Erastianism  as  existent  in 
Great  Britain — the  organic  church  as  a  legal  person 
subject  to  the  state.  The  possibility  of  a  voluntary 
system  for  church  support,  of  a  secular  corporation 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  123 


recognized  by  the  law  and  administering  such  church 
concerns  as  are  temporal,  of  spiritual  affairs  controlled 
only  by  spiritual  authority,  of  harmonious  relations 
between  spiritual  full-powers  under  a  corporate  entity 
created  by  them,  and  a  state  omnipotent  and  sovereign 
in  secular  affairs — this  has  not  even  yet  entered  the 
general  European  mind  as  a  workable  concept  or  a 
thing  to  be  desired. 

^loreover.  the  limitation  of  secular  authority  in 
secular  affairs  by  national  sovereignty  expressed  in 
constitutions  and  bills  of  rights  was  not  thoroughly 
understood.  It  is  customary  to  say  that  the  English 
Parliament  is  omnipotent  and  irresponsible  wdthin  the 
sphere  of  law.^  As  far  as  these  words  have  any  mean- 
ing, they  mean  that  English  conservatism,  as  expressed 
in  legal  habit  and  a  strong  social  hierarchy,  prevents 
encroachment  on  individuality  and  guarantees  personal 
independence.  The  national  habit  of  France  being 
exactly  the  obverse  of  this,  the  secular  authority,  irre- 
sponsible and  omnipotent  exactly  as  Rousseau  consid- 
ered it  to  be,  might  and  would  encroach  on  the  rights 
of  persons,  whether  natural  or  artificial.  Excellent  as 
the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  ]Man  has  been  shown  in 
the  main  to  be,  the  language  was  hardly  penned  before 
its  cardinal  principle  as  to  property  was  whistled  down 
the  wind,  and  the  next  step  in  its  violation  was  still 
easier,  in  that  although  it  imposed  an  intolerable  bur- 
den on  the  consciences  of  most  Frenchmen  for  no  valid 
reason  whatsoever,  it  seemed  abundantly  justified  by 
historical  precedent.  There  was  a  marked  resemblance 
in  many  important  respects  between  Selden  and  Camus, 
between  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  National  As- 
sembly. 

Finally,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  men  of  1789 
,  ^  Bryce,  American  Commonwealth,  I.  20. 


124        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


were  legislating  for  Roman  Catholics.  England  and 
English  America  were  alike  Protestant  throughout,  and 
in  the  main  Protestant  "root  and  branch,"  as  the  phrase 
then  ran.  It  is  true  that  there  was  a  France  which  was 
not  Roman  "root  and  branch" — a  Gallican,  Jansenist, 
Protestant,  radical  France,  the  France  which  had  cre- 
ated a  body  of  French  thought  and  literature  so  im- 
portant that  if  it  were  deducted  from  the  total,  what  is 
left  would  be  only  a  maimed  trunk,  a  mere  torso.  But 
behind  and  associated  with  this  was  a  people — Roman, 
faithful,  dependent — so  swathed  with  Ultramontane 
tradition  that  it  could  not  loose  its  bands  without  dan- 
ger to  its  entire  religious,  moral,  intellectual,  and  social 
structure.  It  was  natural  that  cautious  legislators 
should  seek  a  course  of  reform  possible  for  timid 
minds,  as  they  believed,  and  not  likely  to  result  in 
revolution. 

Acute  critics  have  long  since  remarked  that  in 
the  threefold  watchword  of  the  Revolution — Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity — there  is  no  mention  of  indepen- 
dence. This  perfectly  illustrates  our  contention ;  Rous- 
seau's idea  of  a  sovereignty  constituted  by  the  people 
was  that  while  the  power  came  from  below,  once  cre- 
ated it  should  be  as  absolute  as  was  ever  that  of  the 
monarch.  Accordingly,  the  men  of  1789  made  no  ef- 
fort to  rid  themselves  of  the  old  ideas ;  in  religious  ques- 
tions they  had  no  clear  conception  of  what  a  free  church 
in  a  free  state  could  mean,  much  less  of  how  to  organ- 
ize it. 

The  work  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee  was  the 
joint  achievement  of  the  philosophers  and  the  Jan- 
senists.  Neither  one  nor  the  other  had  any  higher  ideal 
than  that  of  toleration,  and  without  much  effort  to 
reach  even  that  low  mark  they  fell  into  the  mortal  error 
of  the  old  regime — a  confusion  of  ecclesiastical  power 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  125 


with  secular,  except  that  the  latter  was  now  to  be  the 
despotic  master,  not  one  of  the  parties  to  an  agreement 
deliberately  framed  by  both.  The  state  was  to  pay  the 
wages,  and  was  determined  to  lay  down  the  conditions 
of  service.  But  what  the  committee  did  not  see  was 
this :  these  conditions  w^ere  questions  of  conscience, 
matters  purely  spiritual.  For  a  representative  body, 
irregularly  chosen,  as  the  Ultramontanes  contended,  to 
assume,  as  it  had  done,  all  the  political  sovereignty  of  a 
Constitutional  convention  or  constituent  assembly  had 
been  a  strain  on  all  French  royalists,  and  on  most  of 
the  civilized  monarchical  world  as  well ;  that  such  an 
assembly  should  erect  itself  into  an  ecclesiastical  coun- 
cil to  determine  rules  of  faith  and  conduct  roused  the 
faithful  everywhere  to  anxious  foreboding,  and  made 
Catholic  Christendom  at  large  uneasy.  Was  political 
emancipation  to  terminate  in  renovated  religious  des- 
potism ? 

The  high  clericals  throughout  the  nation  wxre  quick 
to  take  alarm,  and  asserted  their  readiness  to  maintain 
Roman  Catholic  ascendancy  even  to  the  shedding  of 
their  blood.  The  laity,  too,  especially  in  the  south, 
where  Protestantism  was  lifting  up  its  head  and  gird- 
ing for  the  struggle,  began  a  series  of  demonstrations 
which  resulted  in  bloody  riots.  The  infection  of  dis- 
order spread,  civil  war  grew  imminent,  the  Assembly 
took  alarm.  Whether  or  not  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mittee itself  understood  the  true  purport  of  the  plan 
they  presented  in  May,  1790,  and  which  was  rapidly 
enacted  into  a  statute  under  the  style  ''Civil  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Clergy,"  must  ever  remain  a  question  for 
academic  debate.  What  is  unquestioned  is  the  fact 
that  in  its  entirety  it  represented  the  ecclesiastical  and 
political  theory  most  abhorrent  to  Jesuitry  and  Ultra- 
montanism'  as  hitherto  accepted  by  the  majority  of 


126       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


French  Roman  Catholics.  Of  course  the  Jansenism  in 
it  was  not  openly  avowed ;  Camus,  the  chief  author  of 
the  plan,  concealed  both  himself  and  his  dogma.  The 
appeal  he  made  in  sanction  of  his  proposition  was  to 
primitive  and  apostolic  conditions ;  the  idea  was  osten- 
sibly to  secure  regeneration;  the  civil  power  posed  as 
regulating  nothing  but  external  details.  Considering 
the  stern  uprightness  of  Camus  and  the  character  of 
both  the  committee  and  the  Assembly,  it  is  impossible 
to  accuse  them  of  insincerity  in  these  professions;  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  idea  of  a  return  to  primitive  eccle- 
siastical conditions  was  just  as  sophistical  as  that  of  a 
return  to  nature  put  forth  by  the  philosophers. 

This  can  easily  be  seen.  The  central  concept  and 
very  taproot  of  Roman  Catholicism  had  been  the  spir- 
itual authority  of  the  Pope;  the  Civil  Constitution 
denied  him  all  power  of  instituting  prelates;  thus  de- 
priving him  of  every  shred  of  spiritual  jurisdiction  or 
mission,  recognizing  him  merely  as  an  abstract  ex- 
pression of  Christian  unity.  To  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  episcopate,  minor  clergy,  and  laity  this 
could  and  did  mean  nothing  less  than  the  violation  of 
conscience.  The  plea  of  the  ecclesiastics  was  "ultra 
vires"  :  the  Assembly  was  not  a  national  Galilean  synod 
or  council,  and,  even  if  it  were,  its  decrees  must  receive 
the  sanction  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  order  to  be 
valid.  Herein  lay  the  crucial  point  of  contention.  Ad- 
mitting the  presence  of  clerics  among  its  members,  the 
Constituent  Assembly  was  nevertheless  a  political  body, 
and  as  such  could  not  impose  laws  upon  the  church  as 
an  inferior.  By  the  loss  of  its  domains  the  church  was 
no  longer  the  first  estate  in  the  realm,  or  in  fact  an 
order  at  all  in  any  recognized  sense  of  the  word.  Yet 
it  still  retained  its  place  as  the  religious  organization  of 
the  vast  majority  of  Frenchmen,  preserving  its  historic 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  127 


continuity  and  traditions.  As  such  it  was  a  power  con- 
current in  spiritual  things  with  the  power  of  the  As- 
sembly in  secular  affairs.  The  power  of  the  church 
was  from  Christ  himself;  the  state  must  protect  it,  but 
might  never  govern  it. 

The  plea  of  Camus  and  the  committee  was  equally 
vigorous.  The  people,  having  resumed  their  political 
and  civil  rights,  had  determined  likewise  to  resume 
their  ecclesiastical  rights,  foremost  among  which  was 
the  choice  of  their  spiritual  guides ;  and  these,  once 
chosen  and  ordained,  should  have  no  territorial  limita- 
tion in  the  exercise  of  their  ministry.  Accordingly, 
the  National  Assembly,  possessing  the  unquestioned 
right  to  choose  a  national  religion,  and  having  deter- 
mined to  preserve  Roman  Catholicism,  arrogated  noth- 
ing spiritual  in  the  redistribution  of  episcopates,  which 
for  convenience  were  to  correspond  to  the  departments. 
This  abolished  fifty  bishoprics.  As  to  the  vital  matter 
of  institution,  the  Pope  unquestionably  was  primate, 
and  as  such  could  counsel  all  the  clergy,  but  could  not 
assert  or  exercise  jurisdiction ;  though  they  might  ask 
advice  of  him,  he  could  neither  offer  nor  force  it  upon 
them ;  he  was  in  no  sense  the  dispenser  of  ecclesiastical 
mission. 

The  proposed  selection  of  priests  and  bishops  by  pop- 
ular election  was  not  strongly  opposed ;  the  idea  of  in- 
ducting pastors  thus  chosen  by  the  senior  French  bishop 
or  metropolitan  was  stigmatized  by  the  clerics  as  noth- 
ing short  of  schism.  And  schismatic  it  ultimately 
proved  to  be;  for  the  moment  the  members  from  the 
clergy  threatened,  and  in  the  main  fulfilled  their  threat, 
of  taking  no  further  share  in  the  proceedings.  During 
the  rest  of  the  discussion  there  was  therefore  little  oppo- 
sition; parish  priests  were  allowed  to  appoint  their  own 
.  curates  without  the  approbation  of  the  bishop,  and 


128        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


modest  stipends,  payable  in  money  from  national  funds, 
were  fixed  for  each  rank  of  the  hierarchy.  The  Assem- 
bly secretly  congratulated  itself  that  a  national  church 
was  thus  constituted,  and  that  the  supremacy  of  the 
higher  over  the  lower  clergy  was  so  minimized  as  to 
render  the  whole  a  homogeneous  class. 

The  Civil  Constitution  as  finally  adopted  was  divided 
into  four  heads.  The  first  abolished  the  whole  pre- 
existing establishment  of  archbishoprics,  bishoprics, 
prebendaries,  canonries,  abbeys,  priories,  substituting 
ten  metropolitan  districts  or  archbishoprics  and  eighty- 
three  bishoprics,  according  to  the  political  arrondisse- 
ments  and  departments,  respectively.  In  each  of  the 
latter  was  to  be  a  theological  seminary.  The  director 
of  each  seminary,  together  with  the  vicars,  who  were 
chosen  by  the  bishop  from  among  the  cures  of  the  par- 
ishes, likewise  greatly  reduced  in  number,  formed  a 
council  for  the  diocese,  without  the  assent  of  which 
the  bishop  could  not  exercise  any  jurisdiction  what- 
soever. The  fifth  article  under  the  first  head  forbids 
every  church  or  parish  of  France  ^  and  every  French 
citizen  ''to  acknowledge  in  any  case  and  under  any  pre- 
text whatsoever  the  authority  of  bishops  or  metropoli- 
tans whose  see  shall  be  established  under  the  rule  of 
a  foreign  power,  or  that  of  its  delegates  residing  in 
France  or  elsewhere." 

Under  the  second  head  provision  was  made  for  the 
appointment  and  institution  of  the  ministry.  The 
electors  of  the  departmental  assembly  nominated  the 
candidates  for  bishop;  those  of  the  district  assembly 
made  the  nominations  for  parish  priests.  The  choice 
was  ''by  ballot  and  absolute  plurality  of  votes,"  those 
of  freethinkers,  Jews,  and  Protestants  included;  the 
attendance  of  all  the  electors  upon  mass  was  imper- 
*  Subsequently  enlarged  to  include  the  French  empire. 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  129 


ative,  at  least  of  those  who  exercised  their  right  of 
voting.  The  metropolitan  could  examine  and  induct 
a  newly  elected  bishop ;  a  bishop,  the  newly  elected 
cures;  rejected  candidates  could  appeal  to  the  secular 
courts  under  the  form  ''because  of  abuse."  This,  of 
course,  went  to  the  root  of  the  entire  question,  destroy- 
ing the  whole  system  of  canonical  institution.  Under 
the  third  head  was  fixed  the  stipend  of  each  clerical 
rank.  These  stipends,  as  we  have  said,  were  modest. 
The  Paris  metropolitan  was  to  receive  fifty  thousand 
francs;  other  bishops  from  twenty  to  twelve  thousand, 
according  to  their  importance.  This  was  an  enormous 
diminution  of  episcopal  revenues  and  prestige.  Finally, 
according  to  the  fourth  head,  all  the  official  clergy  were 
to  remain  in  residence,  and  were  subject  to  municipal 
authority  like  other  officials.  They  were  to  swear  that 
they  would  maintain  the  constitution.^ 

It  may  at  once  be  conceded  that  the  reforms  thus  con- 
templated were  in  theory  purely  external,  and  that 
there  was  no  effort  whatever  to  determine  the  origin 
or  nature  of  spiritual  creeds.  But  the  fatal  mistake  of 
guaranteeing  the  support  of  Christian  worship  from 
national  funds  having  once  been  made,  the  sequence 
was  a  distinct  abuse  of  secular  power.  The  plan  ren- 
dered the  connection  of  the  Pope  with  the  church 
purely  mystical,  and  turned  the  clergy  into  state  offi- 
cials. It  matters  not  that  the  former  ecclesiastical  dis- 
orders due  to  scandalous  favoritism  were  rendered  im- 
possible ;  the  way  was  opened  for  new  ones.  When  the 
church  becomes  a  secular  institution  its  ministers  tend 
to  be  time-servers  and  sycophants.  Nor  was  the 
vaunted  return  to  primitive  conditions  in  the  election 
of  apostles  and  pastors  in  any  degree  satisfactory;  the 

*  The  text  of  the  Civil  Con-  pendix  is  taken  from  the  min- 
stitution  as' printed  in  the  Ap-     utes  as  given  in  Robinet,  I.  331. 


130       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


electors,  being  identical  with  those  who  voted  for  secu- 
lar officers,  and  the  elections  being  held  at  the  same 
time,  on  Sunday  after  mass,  the  door  for  base  intrigue 
was  opened  wide.  It  is,  however,  unjust  and  contrary 
to  sound  procedure  to  criticise  the  Civil  Constitution 
from  the  standpoint  of  present-day  knowledge.  The 
men  who  framed  it  were  well  intentioned  and  acted  in 
good  faith.  They  were  driven  to  extremes  by  perverse 
opponents,  both  clerical  and  radical,  whose  desire  was 
to  substitute  anarchy  for  reform,  bide  their  time,  and 
fish  from  the  troubled  waters  of  chaos  what  they  really 
desired.  The  radicals  had  their  turn,  and  then  the 
clericals;  the  former  failed  utterly,  the  latter  had  a 
measure  of  chastened  and  apparently  permanent  suc- 
cess. 

The  work  of  the  legislature  was  completed  on  July 
twelfth,  1790;  the  king  withheld  his  assent  until  Au- 
gust twenty-fourth.  For  this  he  had  the  best  reasons  ; 
the  proposition  being  repugnant  to  his  whole  nature, 
and  his  interests  as  well,  he  vacillated  and  temporized 
with  himself  in  this  as  in  all  other  crucial  matters,  vir- 
tually referring  his  decision  to  Pius  VI. ^  And  the 
Pope  himself  was  scarcely  less  distracted;  as  early  as 
March  twenty-ninth  he  had  explained  to  the  secret  con- 
sistory the  desperate  situation  of  France,  reserving  his 
decision,  because  as  yet  he  could  appeal  to  neither  bish- 
ops, clergy,  king,  nor  nation.^  Even  in  the  crisis  of 
July  tenth  he  had  advised  the  king  to  consult  the  arch- 
bishops of  Vienne  (Pompignan)  and  of  Bordeaux 
(Champion  de  Circe),  both  high  officials  of  undoubted 
fidelity  and  learning,  and  to  abide  by  their  decision. 
To  both  of  them  the  Pontiff  simultaneously  addressed 

^  Theiner,  Documents  Inedits  Notre  Saint  Pere  le  Pape,  28 

relatifs    aux    Afifaires    Reli-  Juillet,  1790. 

gieiises  de  la  France,  1790  a  'Ibid.,  p.  I. 
1800,  I.  264.    Louis  XVI.  a 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  131 


identical  letters,  begging  them  to  prevent  the  king  from 
assenting  to  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy.^ 
Both  the  prelates  paltered  and  concealed  from  all  con- 
cerned the  facts  not  only  of  the  Pope's  attitude,  but  of 
the  communications  they  had  received.  Thereupon 
Louis  made  a  final  appeal  to  Rome ;  Pius  VI.  refused  a 
direct  reply,  and  referred  the  matter  to  a  committee  of 
cardinals.^  Driven  to  the  wall,  and  hoping  for  some 
ulterior  accommodation,  Louis  yielded  to  the  clamor  of 
the  Assembly  and  the  advice  of  his  friends,  who  feared 
an  insurrection,  giving  his  formal  consent  on  August 
twenty-fourth.^  He  thus  alienated  not  only  all  the  en- 
thusiasm and  loyalty  of  the  church,  but  likewise  that 
of  Jansenists,  Protestants,  and  philosophers,  for  his 
delay  signified  his  dislike  of  the  measure. 

For  two  months  the  Catholic  party  contented  itself 
with  agitation  among  the  parishes ;  the  Assembly  there- 
fore proceeded  with  its  work  of  legislating  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Civil  Constitution  without  serious 
interruption.  As  yet  the  clericals  firmly  believed  that 
with  the  aid  of  the  Pope  they  could  assert  their  power 
by  overwhelming  numbers,  overthrow  the  Civil  Con- 
stitution, and  restore  peace  to  the  distracted  country. 
On  October  thirtieth  the  Archbishop  of  Embrun  ad- 
dressed the  Cardinal  de  Bernis,  French  ambassador  to 
the  Vatican,  plainly  stating  this  as  a  fact ;  and  possibly 
he  was  right."*  But  the  oracle  of  St.  Peter's  chair  was 
dumb. 

Far  otherwise  his  radical  opponents.  It  is  a  sorry 
spectacle  when  infidelity  presides  at  the  debates  of  em- 

^  Theiner,  Documents  Inedits  recommending  to  the  faithful 

relatifs    aux     Affaires     Reli-  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent ;  for 

gieuses  de  la  France,  1790  a  an  example,  see  Theiner,  Docu- 

1800,  I.  7.  ments  Inedits,  I.  14. 

-Ibid.,  p.  16.  *  Ibid.,  p.  297. 

'  Pius  VI.  was  at  this  time 


132        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


bittered  Christians.  This  had  in  a  certain  sense  been 
true  from  the  opening  discussion  of  the  Civil  Constitu- 
tion, for  it  was  at  the  very  outset  that  the  coming  dicta- 
tor of  the  Revolution  made  his  debut.  Maximilien 
Robespierre,  deputy  from  Arras,  was  not  merely  satu- 
rated with  the  doctrines  of  Rousseau,  he  was  imbued 
with  religiosity  and  was  a  fanatic.  "He  will  go  far,'* 
said  Mirabeau ;  ''he  believes  what  he  says."  Like  his 
master,  he  saw  with  piercing  vision  that  a  sovereignty 
constituted  by  popular  will  could  never  be  supreme  over 
conscience,  especially  the  Christian  conscience.  Rous- 
seau bestowed  on  the  state  the  right  of  imposing  a  civil 
religion  upon  its  citizens,  under  pain  of  banishment  or 
death;  Robespierre  declared  from  the  tribune  that 
priests  are  magistrates,  neither  more  nor  less;  that 
society  has  the  right,  on  grounds  of  public  utility,  to 
suppress  whatever  is  superfluous  in  them  or  in  their 
numbers,  especially  in  so  far  as  their  power  depends 
on  foreign  investiture ;  that  they  must  depend  solely  on 
popular  suffrage;  he  even  insinuated  that  to  attach 
them  to  the  state  they  should  be  forced  to  marry„ 

This  was  the  temper  which  began  the  war.  The 
Bastille  was  gone,  but  every  Parisian  saw  daily  as  he 
walked  the  street  another  symbol  of  the  old  "infamy" 
more  striking  even  than  had  been  the  frowning  for- 
tress— to  wit,  the  mediaeval  garb  of  the  priests  and 
nuns.  It  was  not  diflicult  to  direct  attention  to  the 
fact;  during  the  debates  the  archiepiscopal  palace  was 
mobbed,  the  widely  circulated  radical  journals  heaped 
abuse  on  the  clergy,  and  by  September  it  was  a  common 
thing  to  rabble  priests  on  the  streets.  Such  was  the 
violence  of  temper  and  conduct  among  the  populace 
that  timid  souls  could  no  longer  face  it,  and  the  emigra- 
tion of  the  higher  clergy  assumed  ominous  dimensions. 
But  if  the  civil  war  and  schism  were  primarily  insti- 


COXSTITUTIOX  OF  THE  CLERGY  133 


gated  in  fact  by  the  radicals,  the  clericals  did  their 
utmost  by  word  and  deed  to  fortify  the  spirits  of  the 
faithful  against  all  reform.  As  early  as  July  first  the 
Archbishop  of  Toulon  stigmatized  the  movement  as 
not  directed  toward  regeneration,  but  toward  anarchy. 
Steadily  and  regularly  this  idea  was  inculcated  among 
the  Catholics  by  their  trusted  leaders  to  the  very  end. 

Of  course  as  time  went  on  the  language  of  the  cler- 
icals grew  more  violent  and  bitter.  The  Assembly  was 
called  the  scourge  selected  by  God  to  chastise  national 
sin  because  it  had  been  the  instrument  of  sin.  In  Sep- 
tember, Boissy  d'Anglas  denounced  his  colleague,  the 
Bishop  of  Vienne,  for  disloyalty  to  the  body  in  which 
the  prelate  continued  to  sit,  and  thenceforward  it  was  a 
daily  occurrence  that  the  municipal  authorities  publicly 
denounced  the  ecclesiastics  in  all  quarters  of  France  for 
the  violence  of  their  treasonable  utterances  against  the 
Assembly.  The  Bishop  of  Treguier  was  actually  ar- 
raigned for  high  treason.  In  Ximes  and  ^lontauban 
the  news  of  Dom  Gerle's  motion  being  rejected  ini- 
tiated civil  war  between  Catholics  and  Protestants.  It 
was  the  former  who  originated  the  conflict  and  stigma- 
tized the  election  of  Rabaud  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Assembly  as  a  crime.  Order  was  partially  restored,  but 
revolution  seethed  under  the  surface. 

For  more  than  a  century  the  forces  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  France  had  been  distinctly  centrifu- 
gal as  regards  the  papacy.  Le  \^ayer  de  Boutigny, 
author  of  the  standard  treatise  on  the  authority  of 
kings  under  the  ancient  monarchy,  had  expressly  stated 
that  in  the  matters  necessary  to  salvation  the  church 
was  supreme,  in  all  others  the  state;  and  since  obedi- 
ence to  the  laws  of  the  state  is  expressly  enjoined  by 
God,  they  too  are  essential  to  salvation.  The  church 
therefore  is  the  support  of  the  state;  in  what  is  above 


134        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  essentials  of  salvation  the  church  may  counsel  per- 
fection, but  not  enforce  the  steps  thereto. 

The  logical  consequences  of  this  position  had  always 
been  drawn  by  French  prelates.  But  now,  believing 
that  the  foundations  of  all  order  were  crumbling,  they 
suddenly  discovered  the  value  of  ecclesiastical  law  and 
tradition.  Asserting  their  love  and  fidelity  to  the  Holy 
See,  they  sent  more  than  two  hundred  pastorals  far  and 
near,  exposing  the  breach  in  ecclesiastical  continuity 
made  by  the  Civil  Constitution.  To  suppress  more  than 
fifty-one  episcopal  chairs  and  change  the  boundaries  of 
the  other  dioceses  was  a  usurpation  of  spiritual  au- 
thority by  the  secular  arm ;  to  make  Jews  and  Protes- 
tants electors  in  the  choice  of  bishops  and  priests  was 
contrary  to  the  primitive  usage  cited  by  the  canonists 
and  contrary  to  the  Concordat,  a  treaty  not  to  be  modi- 
fied without  the  assent  of  both  the  high  contracting 
parties ;  nor  was  the  form  of  institution  consonant  with 
primitive  usage  under  which  the  metropolitan  received 
his  power  from  provincial  councils.  Why  not  call  a 
national  council  and  negotiate  with  the  Pope,  who  for 
two  centuries  had  exercised  the  right  of  institution? 
Finally,  to  make  the  Pope  a  mere  adviser  was  to  render 
the  Gallican  Church  national,  a  thing  contradictory  in 
itself  and  schismatic  in  its  effects. 

The  bishop-deputies  to  the  Assembly  set  forth,  on 
October  thirtieth,  a  plain  and  moderate  statement  of 
this,  their  position,  and  transmitted  it  to  the  Pope,  who 
delayed  five  long  months  before  making  a  reply.  This 
was  inexcusable,  and  remains  inexplicable.  The  inter- 
val was  disastrous.  As  their  pastorals  passed  through 
the  land  they  were  not  merely  read,  they  served  as  a 
text  for  unbridled  license  of  speech,  not  only  in  the 
places  already  mentioned,  but  in  Senez,  Auch,  Nantes, 
Lyons,  and  scores  of  other  towns  scarcely  less  impor- 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY  135 


tant.  Rioting  broke  out  at  Strasburg,  in  the  Pas  de 
Calais,  and  at  Uzes.  Resistance  to  the  execution  of 
the  laws,  whether  concerning  the  sale  of  ecclesiastical 
estates  or  the  administration  of  the  Civil  Constitution, 
was  made  in  about  forty  different  cities,  and  in  some 
of  them  with  temporary  success,  under  the  leadership 
of  great  ecclesiastical  dignitaries.  There  was  every 
variety  of  form  and  degree ;  the  prelates,  unaccustomed 
to  self-determination  or  independent  action,  behaved 
each  according  to  his  temper,  and  appeared  for  the 
most  part  to  act  not  on  principle,  but  from  motives  of 
selfishness,  as  if  they  were  loath  to  part  with  place,  sta- 
tion, and  wealth. 

This  at  least  was  the  interpretation  put  upon  the 
facts  when  presented  to  the  Assembly  by  its  committee 
on  November  twenty-sixth.  Enumerating  upward  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  bishops,  chapters,  canons,  priests,  and 
curates  who,  in  as  many  different  places,  denied  the 
authority  of  the  Assembly  and  appealed  to  the  Pope,  the 
chairman  of  the  united  commission,  a  deputy  named 
Voidel,  proposed  that  all  priests,  without  exception, 
should  take  what  he  called  a  constitutional  oath  to  obey 
the  laws,  the  constitution,  including  the  ecclesiastical 
provisions,  and  the  king,  under  penalty  of  deposition 
and  loss  of  salary  and  citizenship.^  This  w^as  tyranny 
pure  and  simple ;  those  who  accepted  pay  from  the  gov- 
ernment, especially  when  tempted  to  insurrection  by  the 
example  of  colleagues  high  in  place,  might  well  be  ex- 
pected to  swear  allegiance  in  general ;  but  to  compel  an 
oath  to  an  abhorrent  ecclesiastical  constitution,  includ- 
ing matters  of  conscience,  was  persecution.  As  the 
Bishop  of  Clermont  tersely  put  it,  the  church  was  re- 
signed to  the  loss  of  her  property ;  she  would  never  sur- 
render her  liberty. 

'    ^Archives  Parlementaires,  XXIV.  52. 


136        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

The  debate  was  long  and  bitter.  Mirabeau,  reply- 
ing to  the  bishops'  statement  of  October  thirtieth, 
made  what  was  possibly  the  most  eloquent  and  cer- 
tainly the  most  illogical  of  all  his  famous  orations. 
Maury's  retort  was  biting:  we  are  asked  to  act  in  a 
single  role  the  parts  of  judge,  pontiff,  and  legislator; 
such  things  are  done  only  at  the  serail  in  Constanti- 
nople. Therewith  he  began  an  impassioned  review  of 
the  entire  legislative  procedure  regarding  the  Roman 
Church,  and  sought  to  reopen  the  whole  question.  But 
Camus  was  too  shrewd  and  quick  to  permit  such  a  par- 
liamentary stroke;  interposing  his  austere  presence  and 
interrupting  with  severe,  incisive  speech,  he  swept  the 
Assembly  with  him,  while  at  the  close  he  cited  with 
dramatic  fire  Augustine's  declaration  that  for  the  sake 
of  peace  he  would  resign  all  his  ecclesiastical  offices. 
The  debater  then  urged  the  example  on  his  opponents. 
Voidel's  proposition  was  carried  by  an  overwhelming 
majority. 


IX 

THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY 


IX 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY 

THIS  appears  to  be  the  conjuncture  of  events  at 
which  reform  verged  to  revolution.  The  king 
had  been  untouched  by  the  philosophy  of  his  century, 
he  was  a  sincere  and  humble  believer;  without  opin- 
ions of  his  own,  he  leaned,  like  the  faithful  Roman 
Catholic  he  professed  to  be,  on  his  spiritual  advisers 
for  guidance.  Without  exception,  and  during  the  time 
of  uncertainty  as  to  the  Pope's  attitude,  those  advisers 
kept  telling  him  that  assent  to  the  Civil  Constitution 
would  mean  the  perdition  of  his  soul. 

Yet  he  saw  clearly  that  a  refusal  to  comply  with 
the  fierce  demands  of  Assembly  and  people  could 
mean  nothing  short  of  insurrection  and,  in  the  light 
of  daily  experience,  the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy. His  young  queen  not  unnaturally  wished  to 
remain  in  her  high  station;  he  himself  felt  the  bur- 
den of  his  ancestry  and  what  he  owed  to  his  name; 
possibly  he  already  knew,  what  is  finally  clear  to  the 
world,  that  the  Pope's  hesitancy  was  due  to  the  at- 
titude of  the  French  episcopate,  and  so  hoped  against 
hope  that  procrastination  might  result  in  toleration  for 
the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy.  With  the  ablest 
canonists  divided  among  themselves,  a  distracted  mon- 
arch might  thus  easily  deceive  himself  and  reduce  to 
practice  the  precepts  of  that  Jesuitical  casuistry  in  which 

139 


I40        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


he  was  trained.  The  force  of  circumstances,  he  felt, 
was  too  strong  for  his  conscience.  He  was  surrounded 
by  aristocratic  prelates,  concerned  more  for  their  bene- 
fices than  for  the  cure  of  souls;  with  and  for  their 
class  invincibly  fixed  on  the  point  of  opposition  to  re- 
form, they  did  not  warn,  but  rather  abetted  him.  The 
chimera  of  a  national  church  might  otherwise  have 
had  some  substance :  had  the  king  possessed  any  force 
of  character,  revolution  would  either  have  come  sooner 
or  else  have  been  averted  entirely. 

But  behaving  and  feeling  as  Louis  XVL  did,  the 
utter  separation  of  church  and  state,  the  complete  de- 
sertion of  throne  and  altar  by  moderates  and  radicals 
was  consummated  quickly  enough.  By  the  menacing 
words  and  threats  of  force  within  and  without  the 
assembly  hall,  the  king  had  felt  compelled  to  act.  He 
must  either  refuse  or  grant  his  sanction  to  the  Civil 
Constitution.  We  feel  somehow,  as  if  even  then,  when 
giving  his  formal  assent,  he  might  have  displayed  a 
hesitating  gravity,  like  that  which  he  showed  when  he 
took  the  civic  oath  at  the  festival  of  federation.  But 
having  determined  on  the  role  of  obliquity,  he  over- 
acted his  part.  He  signed  the  constitution,  and  he  did 
it.  with  a  Machiavellian  appearance  of  sincerity  that  is 
disgusting.^  Twice,  as  if  to  salve  the  royal  conscience, 
efforts  were  made  on  the  floor  of  the  Assembly  to  show 
that  in  the  Civil  Constitution  there  was  no  intention  to 
attack  conscience,  dogma,  or  spiritual  authority.  The 
plea,  which  was  intended  really  to  justify  the  decree 
compelling  all  priests  to  take  the  oath,  was  in  the  main 
Gregoire's.  But  there  were  rioters  without,  and  the 
galleries  of  the  hall  groaned  under  the  weight  of  med- 
dling spectators.  The  fatal  decree  which  made  the  oath 
indispensable  was  enacted  on  November  twenty-seventh, 

^  Durand-Maillane,  Histoire  Apologetique,  p.  i86. 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  141 


1790.  Perhaps  it  might  have  heen  lawful  to  exact  from 
the  clergy,  as  from  others,  a  general  oath  to  the  king 
and  the  political  constitution,  especially  as  the  prelacy 
far  and  near  were  now^  inciting  and  leading  insurrec- 
tion ;  but  to  exact  a  definite  oath  to  a  definite  measure 
which  violated  the  consciences  of  men  who  were  not 
state  servants  was,  we  repeat,  primarily  and  necessarily 
a  piece  of  shocking  tyranny.  The  king's  assent  to  the 
decree  was  obtained  by  the  same  menacing  violence  as 
that  by  which  he  had  been  forced  to  sanction  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Clergy,  and  Louis  again  displayed  the 
same  unpardonable  semblance  of  humility  and  com- 
plaisance.^ His  purpose  w^as  already  fixed.  Incited 
thereto  by  D'Agoult,  Bishop  of  Pamiers,  he  was  plan- 
ning flight,  and  on  December  third  he  addressed  Fred- 
erick William  of  Prussia,  imploring  aid  against  the 
French.  Although  the  Assembly  could  not  know  this, 
they  had  an  instinct  of  treachery,  and  even  Camus 
talked  of  using  force  to  subdue  prelatical  recalcitrancy. 

Suddenly  the  bolt  fell.  On  December  twenty-seventh 
the  walls  of  Paris  were  placarded  with  a  forged  poster, 
purporting  to  emanate  from  the  municipality,  which  de- 
clared that  the  oath  should  be  obligatory  on  all  priests, 
without  exception,  whether  functionaries  or  not,  and 
that  such  as  refused  should  be  regarded  as  disturbers  of 
the  peace.  Explanations  and  excuses  were  offered  by 
both  Alirabeau  and  Bailly,  the  mayor,  but  in  vain ;  the 
placard  represented  public  opinion.  Malouet  asked,  in 
vain  too,  for  an  inquisition  to  discover  the  offenders, 
and  in  vain  was  an  effort  made  to  commit  the  Assembly 
to  Mirabeau's  explanation  that  only  those  taking  office 
should  be  required  to  swear. 

Barnave  then  carried  the  house  in  a  demand  that  all 

^  For. the  text  of  his  letter,  see  Robinet,  Moiivement 
Religieux,  I.  371. 


142        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  ecclesiastics  of  the  Assembly  should  be  summoned 
to  the  bar  and  sworn.  This  was  on  January  fourth. 
The  ceremony  began  at  once.  An  angry  roar  of  ex- 
cited voices  could  be  heard  without.  They  swelled 
into  one  fierce  shout:  'The  oath!  the  oath!"  Not  a 
priest  was  to  escape,  whether  functionary  or  not.  This 
closed  the  door  to  all  accommodation,  and  then  oc- 
curred the  famous  scene,  second  only  in  its  grandeur 
to  that  of  the  Tennis  Court,  when,  one  after  another, 
tw^o  thirds  of  the  prelates  and  priests  refused  the  oath 
with  solemn  mien,  and  thereby  with  impressive  dignity 
surrendered  their  places.  Of  the  hundred  clerical  dep- 
uties who  had  subscribed  to  the  Civil  Constitution, 
twenty  retracted  two  days  later,  and  others  followed 
at  intervals.  Only  two  of  the  bishop-deputies,  Talley- 
rand and  Gobel,  accepted  the  constitution.  Four  other 
bishops  not  deputies,  one  of  them  a  cardinal,  joined 
in  the  oath :  Lomenie  de  Brienne,  Jorente  of  Orleans, 
and  Lafonte  de  Savines  of  Viviers,  with  Du  Bourg- 
Miroudot.  Gobel  and  Du  Bourg-Miroudot  were  not 
true  bishops,  but  merely  titular — what  are  known  by  a 
fiction  of  the  Roman  Church  as  bishops  in  partibus} 

The  hundred  and  twenty-five  nonjuring  deputies  of 
the  clergy  found  themselves  at  the  head  of  a  great  ma- 
jority among  the  laity,  and  such  was  the  moral  effect 
of  so  powerful  a  resistance  that  the  Assembly  w^as 
forced  to  adopt  harsh  and  stringent  measures.  *'We 
have  seized  their  property,"  cried  Mirabeau,  ''but  they 
have  preserved  their  honor."  Now  "honor"  was  still  a 
proud  word  in  France.  It  was  a  tremendous  help  to 
the  radicals  that  incumbents  for  the  eighty  vacant  bish- 
oprics had  to  be  found  among  the  parish  priests,  and 
Mirabeau  composed  what  was  intended  to  be  a  con- 
ciliatory paper,  an  address  to  the  people,  to  be  printed 
^  De  Pressense,  The  Church  and  the  French  Revolution,  p.  165. 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  143 


and  published  throughout  France,  explaining  that 
change  in  diocesan  boundaries  was  a  secular  matter, 
and  appealing  for  the  thousand  and  first  time  to  prim- 
itive Christianity  as  a  sanction  for  the  election  of  pas- 
tors by  popular  suffrage.  But  his  main  reliance  was 
continuous  and  intemperate  abuse  of  the  clergy,  which, 
though  having  a  shadow  of  reason,  so  offended  even 
the  Jansenists  and  Protestants  that  the  paper  was  sent 
to  a  committee  for  modification.  In  its  final  form  the 
appeal  reiterated  the  two  fundamental  propositions  and 
defended  the  oath  as  nothing  but  a  solemn  promise  of 
officials  to  obey  the  law.  Severe  and  indefinite  penal- 
ties were  to  be  inflicted  on  those  who  undertook  to 
perform  clerical  functions  without  swearing.  This 
was  ordered  to  be  read  as  a  pastoral  in  all  the  churches 
on  January  twenty-sixth.  It  was  further  decreed  that, 
contrary  to  either  the  primitive  or  later  practice  of 
Rome,  the  newly  chosen  bishops  might  be  inducted 
into  their  sees  by  any  of  the  sworn  bishops  without 
further  institution. 

The  initial  steps  by  which  the  Constitutional,  na- 
tional church  was  organized  were  destitute  of  all  moral 
grandeur.  Already  the  Bishop  of  Autun  was  well 
known  as  a  man  without  piety;  Gobel  was  a  notorious 
time-server;  both  were  virtual  neophytes  in  apostasy. 
Yet  it  was  Talleyrand,  assisted  by  Gobel  and  Miroudot, 
who  consecrated  the  first  Constitutional  bishop,  the 
Abbe  Expilly,  and  installed  him  in  his  "department  of 
the  Aisne" ;  Gobel,  alone  and  unassisted,  consecrated 
more  than  half  of  the  total  number  of  new  bishops — no 
fewer  than  forty-eight.  Under  the  latest  decree  these 
in  turn  consecrated  the  remainder.  The  municipalities 
and  Jacobin  clubs  in  the  various  district  capitals  re- 
ceived their  official  coadjutors  with  dignity  and  re- 
spect.   But  it  was  far  otherwise  with  the  religious 


144        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


houses;  in  most  cases  the  various  monastic  orders 
closed  their  doors  in  the  faces  of  the  constitutional 
bishops,  and  in  many  parts  of  France  their  authority 
was  established  and  maintained  by  military  force. 
During  the  life  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  the  non- 
juring  ecclesiastics  of  the  provinces  were  unmolested; 
they  even  received  a  slender  allowance  of  money  and 
Vv^ere  permitted  to  say  mass  in  some  of  the  churches  of 
the  departments.    Later  their  case  was  far  different. 

Thus  by  a  process  legally  regular  but  morally  im- 
perfect was  formed  a  complete,  though  halting  and 
lame  state  establishment.  The  effect  was  deplorable. 
In  Paris,  where  for  centuries  the  Gallican  Church  had 
assembled  all  that  was  most  learned  and  brilliant  and 
devoted  among  its  clergy,  high  and  low,  almost  two- 
thirds — four  hundred  and  thirty  from  six  hundred  and 
seventy — of  the  officiating  ecclesiastics,  and  they  the 
most  distinguished,  refused  the  oath.  The  Paris  pop- 
ulace was  so  infuriated  that,  with  cries  of  "The  oath  or 
the  gallows !"  they  mobbed  the  Church  of  St.  Sulpice, 
where  the  rector  was  especially  outspoken  in  his  obdur- 
acy. Of  the  fifty-two  rectors  of  Paris  twenty-three 
subscribed.  Such  resistance  might  have  been  expected 
in  the  metropolis;  but  while  our  knowledge  of  the 
provinces  is  defective,  the  records  having  either  not 
been  kept  at  all  or  destroyed  later,  yet  it  is  reasonably 
certain  that  in  the  country  as  a  whole  the  proportion  of 
recusants  was  not  much  lower  than  in  Paris.  That  a 
number  relatively  so  large  actually  took  the  oath  was 
due  in  part  to  the  silence  of  the  Vatican,  but  in  the 
main  to  the  falseheartedness  with  which  the  king  had 
sanctioned  the  Civil  Constitution,  an  act  which,  in  view 
of  the  now  well-known  facts,  that  his  court  was  already 
plotting  with  foreign  potentates,  that  his  personal  chap- 
lains had  refused  the  oath,  that  he  himself  never  at- 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  145 


tended  a  ^'Constitutional"  service,  finally,  that  he  was 
already  contemplating  flight  to  escape  further  identifi- 
cation with  the  general  movement,  cannot  be  too  se- 
verely reprobated  as  Jesuitry.^ 

It  is  claimed  by  the  polemics  both  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  of  the  radicals  that  there  was  already 
no  freedom  of  action  or  debate;  the  casuistry  of  one 
side  lending  itself  to  false  representations,  the  violence 
of  the  other  intimidating  anxious  souls.  Both  are 
right.  Jansenism  revenged  itself  on  Ultramontanism, 
and  in  so  doing  committed  itself  and  the  Assembly  in 
particular  to  a  false  position.  Romanism  temporized 
in  part  and  in  part  accepted  the  role  of  martyrdom,  the 
radicals  enforced  their  false  doctrine,  encouraged  vio- 
lence, and  flourished  in  the  dissensions  of  ecclesiasti- 
cism,  and  these  culminated  in  a  schism  that  withdrew 
from  the  cause  of  reform  many,  if  not  the  majority,  of 
those  who  alone  could  have  guided  its  steps  on  a  dif- 
ferent path. 

The  formal  institution  of  the  Constitutional  clergy 
having  been  attended  with  comparatively  little  difficulty, 
the  fate  of  the  national  church  depended  largely  on  the 
attitude  of  the  Pope,  but  in  the  main  and  finally  on  the 
character  of  the  new  incumbents.  Some  of  these  were 
unexceptionable.  Gregoire  of  Blois  was  spotless  in 
character,  wise  in  administration,  and  successful  in  his 
pastoral  work,  for  he  acted  from  sincere  conviction. 
Claude  Le  Coz,  at  Rennes,  displayed  both  faith  and  he- 
roism, protecting  the  nonjuring  clergy  against  the  most 
violent  assaults.  But  the  new  positions  in  the  prov- 
inces were  too  often  filled  by  unworthy  self-seekers 
who  seriously  misbehaved  themselves  in  many  in- 
stances, and  at  the  best  failed  in  most  places  to  win 
the  confidence  of  their  peoples.  Several  of  the  new 
.    *  Memoires  de  Bouille,  i'^  ed.,  II.  42. 


146        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


bishops,  by  a  display  of  unfortunate  secular  temper, 
accepted  offices  which  seemed  to  the  observant  masses 
utterly  incompatible  with  their  spiritual  station.  Ma- 
rolles  at  Laon,  Fauchet  in  Calvados,  and  Villar  at  Laval, 
were  chosen  and  served  as  presidents  of  the  respective 
Jacobin  clubs  in  those  districts.  There  was  no  social 
heresy  which  Fauchet  did  not  proclaim  from  his  pulpit ; 
and  Gobel,  the  Paris  metropolitan,  was  an  arch  dema- 
gogue, too  ignorant  to  lead  in  anarchistic  movements 
and  disposed  at  every  crisis  to  jump  with  the  cat.  Si- 
multaneously with  the  process  of  investing  the  Consti- 
tutionals, great  numbers  of  the  parish  clergy  in  the 
country,  who  had  at  first  taken  the  oath  and  still  held 
their  cures,  began  under  various  influences  to  retract. 
Violent  antagonisms  were  speedily  aroused,  expressed 
at  first  in  warnings,  taunts,  and  gibes.  But  actual  vio- 
lence soon  broke  forth,  and  the  nonjuror  Catholics  who 
worshipped  in  conventicles  or  under  the  protection  of 
the  religious  houses  still  in  existence  were  in  many 
instances  shamefully  mobbed.  Rioters  burst  open  the 
doors  of  ten  or  more  nunneries  belonging  to  the  Sisters 
of  Charity  in  Paris,  and  the  termagant  women  of  the 
Central  Market  pitilessly  scourged  their  helpless  sis- 
ters through  the  streets;  like  brutalities  were  seen  in 
Rochelle,  Mans,  and  Lyons.    No  one  was  punished. 

When  the  king  and  court  arranged  to  spend  Easter 
week  in  retirement  at  St.  Cloud,  it  was  whispered  abroad 
that  in  this  apparently  harmless  excursion  the  king's 
real  object  was  to  receive  the  paschal  eucharist  from  the 
hands  of  a  nonjuror  priest.  Li  consequence,  the  pop- 
ulace of  the  capital,  suspecting,  if  not  that,  at  least  some 
other  trick,  forced  the  royal  carriages  back  at  the  very 
gate  of  the  Tuileries.^  Not  only  was  Louis  now  a 
virtual  prisoner  in  his  own  house,  but  the  authorities 
^Archives  Parlementaires,  XXV.  200. 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  147 


of  the  city  burst  into  menaces,  threatening  his  further 
Hberty  and  violently  charging  him  with  giving  his  con- 
fidence to  refractory  priests.  The  Cordeliers  placarded 
the  walls  with  denunciations  of  the  king  himself  as  a 
refractory.  It  is  not  incomprehensible  that  hencefor- 
ward the  desertion  of  the  throne,  the  effort  to  sustain 
the  monarchy  on  foreign  soil,  and  the  abandonment  of 
loyal  hearts  to  their  fate  were  parts  of  an  irrevocable 
revolution.  A  faint  heart  and  a  superstitious  faith 
form  an  ill-assorted  union. 

Lafayette  as  commander  of  the  National  Guard  did 
what  he  could  to  protect  the  worship  of  nonjurors  in 
authorized  halls,  but  his  efforts  were  vain;  much  less 
could  he  secure  liberty  of  action  in  the  same  way  for 
the  king.  His  troops  would  not  interpret  their  am- 
biguous instructions  as  compelling  the  protection  of 
nonjurors,  burgher  or  royal.  Thereupon  the  general 
resigned  and  offered  asylum  to  a  congregation  of  the 
churchless  in  his  own  house.  He  resumed  his  com- 
mand, however,  under  strong  pressure,  but  only  with 
the  assurance  that  the  king's  personal  liberty  would  not 
again  be  \  iolated.  ^leantime  the  nonjurors  had  hired 
the  church  of  the  Theatins,  but  the  authorities  of  the 
city,  finding  that  the  necessary  poster  announcing  the 
place  as  one  of  private  worship,  had  not  been  affixed  to 
the  building,  forbade  its  use,  and  closed  it,  under  stress 
of  mob  violence.  This  congregation  Lafayette  took 
under  his  protection  on  resuming  command  of  the  Na- 
tional Guard. 

We  have  already  noted  the  effect  upon  Parisians  of 
the  efforts  to  secure  burgher  privileges  and  a  limited 
suft'rage  by  Constitutional  measures.  The  first  Con- 
stitutional measure  in  which  the  political  suffrage  was 
exercised  in  such  a  way  as  to  control  the  masses  of 
France  was  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy.  Be- 


148        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


cause  this  was  a  religious  control,  it  oppressed  the  con- 
sciences of  the  majority.  The  consequence  of  the 
king's  attitude  in  regard  to  it  was  twofold  as  far  as  the 
reformers  were  concerned.  The  radical  thinkers  began 
to  feel  that  they  could  dispense  with  such  a  smooth  and 
supple  king,  and  it  was  neither  among  the  peasantry 
nor  among  the  artisans  and  laborers,  but  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  burgher  class  that  a  nucleus  of  democracy 
was  formed,  largely  under  the  instigation  of  Marat  and 
after  his  appeals  of  June,  1790.  Its  leaders  were  men 
widely  differing  from  each  other  in  temper  and  endow- 
ments, but  all  able  and  ardent :  Robespierre,  Gregoire, 
Marat,  Condorcet. 

When  on  February  fourth,  1790,  the  king  so  gra- 
ciously accepted  the  new  political  constitution,  there 
could  be  little  doubt  of  his  capacity  as  the  leader 
of  reform,  and  no  question  of  democracy  could  exist, 
for  the  nation  was  royalist,  and  Louis  was  personally 
popular.  The  festival  of  the  federation  seemed  truly 
national  and  it  was  purely  royalist.  But  the  attitude 
of  the  king  to  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  out- 
wardly assenting,  inwardly  raging,  was  quickly  di- 
vined, and  changed  the  temper  of  the  moderate  liberals 
completely.  They  could  dispense  with  such  a  cowardly 
hypocrite  as  Louis  clearly  was.  For  some  time  men 
had  used  the  words  "Republic  of  France"  in  the  sense 
purely  of  ''commonwealth."  But  the  very  word  ''re- 
public" led  to  further  thought,  and  in  December  the 
newly  published  pamphlet  of  Robert,  entitled,  "Re- 
publicanism in  France,"  was  widely  read  and  approved 
by  many  who  could  not  yet  stomach  the  radical  de- 
mocracy. A  further  accession  to  the  ranks  of  those 
who  distrusted  the  institution  of  monarchy  because 
they  despised  the  monarch  came  through  the  suffer- 
ings and  famine  of  the  winter,  which  led  to  an  examina- 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  149 


tion  of  the  bases  of  society  and  produced  many  social- 
ists. Moreover,  from  the  beginning  of  the  new 
regime,  especially  in  the  preliminary  movement  of 
municipal  reform,  the  women  of  France  had  come  to 
the  front.  Certain  of  them  now  became  leaders  in  the 
democratic-republican  movement.  Between  January 
and  June,  1791,  four  social  elements — those  who  were 
already  suffering  from  hunger,  those  who  detested  the 
king  for  his  suspected  duplicity,  the  supporters  of  the 
commonwealth  idea,  and  the  femininists,  as  they  were 
styled — all  drew  closer  and  closer  together,  until,  few 
in  number  as  they  were  and  unpopular  as  were  their 
tenets,  they  formed  a  powerful  moral  force.  Our  min- 
ister, Gouverneur  Morris,  noted  as  early  as  April  that 
even  in  the  highest  circles  it  was  already  fashionable 
to  announce  yourself  as  republican.^ 

It  must  be  remembered  that  so  far  all  was  suspicion : 
even  the  retreat  to  St.  Cloud  was  suspected  to  be  only 
a  ruse.  The  king  was  not  content  to  let  suspicion  die 
out,  and  to  continue  his  underhand  dealing  behind  a 
specious  inactivity  and  moderate  compliance  such  as 
had  been  consonant  with  his  character.  Had  he 
merely  continued  to  hunt,  to  eat,  to  drink,  to  play  the 
clown,  to  tinker  with  his  toy  locks  in  his  toy  shop,  he 
would  have  shown  himself  an  adroit  diplomat.  But  he 
behaved  far  otherwise.  In  April,  some  days  after  the 
Easter  fiasco,  he  caused  his  diplomatic  representatives 
throughout  Europe  to  deny  emphatically  that  he  was 
unhappy,  for  he  could  have  no  happiness  except  that  of 
his  people,  and  this  was  patent  to  all ;  to  assert  that  his 
authority  was  never  so  strong,  since  it  was  now  founded 
on  the  law ;  to  deny  the  base  rumor  that  the  king  was 
no  longer  free,  for  it  was  of  his  own  volition  that  he 
resided  among  the  citizens  of  Paris,  a  concession  he 
^Aulard,  Histoire  Politique  de  la  Revolution  Franqaise,  p.  114. 


ISO        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


owed  to  their  patriotism,  their  anxieties,  and  their  af- 
fection.^ Not  content  with  this,  Louis  presented  him- 
self before  the  Assembly,  asserted  his  fidelity  to  the  new 
constitution,  including  the  regulations  pertaining  to  the 
clergy,  dismissed  his  chaplains,  and  attended  mass  in 
company  with  the  queen  at  St.  Germain  I'Auxerrois, 
the  parish  church  of  the  Tuileries.  This  and  similar 
acts  discouraged  and  infuriated  the  nonjurors  without 
winning  the  slightest  liberal  support.  Disaster  to  the 
church  and  dissolution  of  the  nation  were  at  hand. 
*'Your  detestable  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,"  said 
Mirabeau  to  Camus,  "will  ruin  the  one  we  are  making 
for  ourselves." 

The  Pope,  moreover,  had  spoken  at  last,  unfortu- 
nately not  in  a  dispassionate  spirit,  but  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  bitter  grievance.  Two  counties  of  the 
Rhone  valley,  Avignon  and  Venaissin,  had  been  papal 
states  for  four  centuries.  Like  other  portions  of  the  dis- 
trict, they  had  been  fired  with  the  theory  of  liberty,  and 
asserting  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  Revolution,  de- 
manded in  the  exercise  of  their  popular  sovereignty  to 
be  incorporated  in  France.  The  Assembly  dreaded  the 
diplomatic  troubles  sure  to  arise,  but  sympathized  with 
the  spirit  of  the  people.  In  the  necessity  for  preserving 
order  French  troops  occupied  the  counties  during  Jan- 
uary, 1 79 1.  What  the  inevitable  result  would  be  was 
known  long  before  to  both  Pius  and  his  subjects — at 
least  as  early  as  March,  1790,  when  the  Avignon  riots 
began.  The  end  was  not  actually  reached  until  Sep- 
tember thirteenth,  1791,  when  the  union  was  voted. 
It  was  therefore  under  a  sense  of  impending  personal 
wrong  that  Pius,  who  had  as  keen  a  desire  for  tempo- 
ralities as  any  prince  in  Europe,  finally  broke  silence. 
The  official  utterances  of  the  papal  chair  are  contained 
^Archives  Parlementaires,  XXV.  312,  313. 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  151 


in  three  papers :  the  preHminary  brief,  the  brief  ''Cari- 
tas,"  and  a  letter  to  the  king.^ 

In  private  correspondence  the  Pope  had  for  months 
past  steadily  been  urging  the  French  clergy  to  resist  the 
Civil  Constitution ;  in  the  brief  of  March  tenth  the  first 
official  utterance,  he  did  not  formally  arraign  the  Civil 
Constitution,  but  with  doubtful  tact  he  condemned 
every  vital  principle  of  the  Revolution,  including  lib- 
erty of  thought  and  action;  moreover,  he  expressly 
threatened  all  recalcitrants  among  the  clergy  with  ex- 
communication. This  paper  was  referred  to  a  coun- 
cil of  the  Constitutional  ecclesiastics. 

In  an  open  letter  to  the  king  Pius  explicitly  con- 
demned the  Civil  Constitution.  The  assembly  of  the 
Constitutional  priests  replied  in  a  strain  far  nobler  than 
that  of  their  spiritual  head.  Reviewing  the  means  of 
conciliation  they  had  suggested  in  their  statement  of 
principles,  they  declared  their  continued  adherence  to 
the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  asserted  their 
belief  in  toleration  as  a  principle  of  civil  authority 
and  in  the  necessity  for  a  separation  of  the  spiritual 
from  the  secular  power.  If  schism  could  thereby  be 
prevented,  they  were  ready  to  resign  in  a  body.  On 
April  thirteenth  the  Pope  issued  his  rejoinder.  The 
Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  he  now^  asserted  to 
be  heresy  pure  and  simple,  and  all  the  faithful  were 
adjured  to  stand  firm  by  the  ancient  doctrines.  The 
document  was  publicly  burned  in  the  Rue  Royale  on 
May  first  by  a  contemptuous  mob.  Thus  the  war  was 
declared,  conciliation  made  impossible,  and  the  battle 
was  joined. 

The  Paris  press  began  to  breathe  threatenings  and 
slaughter.    But  the  Constitutionals  were  in  a  serious 

*  Briefs  of  Pius  VI.,  I.  126.    Theiner,  Documents  Inedits, 
I.  18,  90,  94,  142. 


152        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


quandary.  For  them  there  was  now  a  choice  between 
perverse,  avowed  schism  and  diplomatic  procrastin- 
ation. They  dehberately  selected  the  latter  and  de- 
scended to  the  basest  practices.  Protesting  that  since 
the  communications  professing  to  emanate  from  the 
Pope  had  not  been  addressed  to  the  government  they 
could  not  be  genuine,  they  surreptitiously  issued  a 
spurious  brief  in  which  the  Pope  was  made  to  sanction 
the  Civil  Constitution.^  When  this  paper  had  been 
sufficiently  circulated  to  create  widespread  uncertainty, 
they  openly  distributed  an  official  circular  repeating 
that  since  the  pretended  rescript  from  Rome  had  not 
received  the  authority  of  letters  patent  from  the  throne, 
as  was  customary,  it  could  not  be  genuine.  It  would 
be  a  scandal  should  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  openly 
violate  a  well-known  law.  He  could  never  have  done 
it.^  The  brief  of  April  thirteenth  was  then  denounced 
far  and  near  as  a  fraud.  Camus  alone  disdained  such 
subterfuges,  and  admitting  the  paper  to  be  genuine, 
fiercely  assailed  all  its  positions,  proving  the  whole  to 
be  nugatory.^  His  logic  was  irrefutable,  but  the  hour 
and  the  people  were  incapable  of  grasping  it.  The 
country  resounded  with  denunciations  and  counter- 
denunciations.  For  long  the  Ultramontanes  could  pro- 
duce no  convincing  proof.  High  words  led  to  high- 
handed outrage. 

As  the  storm  grew  more  and  more  menacing,  the 
important  nonjurors  of  high  rank  fled  across  the 
border  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  notably  Cardinal 
Rohan  of  Strasburg  and  others  only  less  important. 
Of  the  Constitutional  substitutes  in  important  bishop- 
rics, many  proved  to  be  men  of  probity,  acting  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  and  a  very  few  rose  to 

'  See  letter  of  Bishop  of  Mar-  ^  Hesmivy    d'Auribeau,  Ex- 

seilles,  in  Theiner,  Documents  traits  des  Memoires,  I.  207. 

Inedits,  1.330.  The  forgery  was  'Observations      siir  deux 

entitled  Vrai  Bref  du  Pape.  Brefs,  Juillet,  1791. 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  JESUITRY  153 


the  heights  of  marked  and  real  ability.  Of  course  all 
of  these  were  not  men  of  great  wisdom.  Gregoire  of 
Blois,  as  was  expected,  continued  the  strongest,  not 
because  of  learning  or  eloquence,  but  because  of  a  char- 
acter firmly  rooted  in  conviction  and  courage.  Gobel 
chose  his  associates  among  the  basest  elements  of  revo- 
lutionary radicalism,  performed  his  duties  without  zeal, 
and  was  finally  execrated  as  a  weak  vessel  tossed  by 
every  wave  of  popular  violence,  trimming  his  sails  so 
often  that  he  failed  to  hold  any  course.  He  soon  iden- 
tified himself  with  actual  unbelief  and  ended  in  the 
complete  shipwreck  of  blasphemy  and  scandal.  Tal- 
leyrand, rapidly  preparing  his  apostasy  from  the  min- 
istry and  from  Christianity,  was  justly  famous  for 
consummate  ability  and  versatility.  Lomenie  de 
Brienne,  fickle  and  perverse,  was  openly  denounced  by 
the  Pope,  but  not  for  his  real  faults :  Pius  accused  him 
of  preparing  toleration  for  Protestants  and  of  restor- 
ing the  Edict  of  Nantes!  The  persecuting  temper  of 
the  papacy,  thus  frankly  revealed,  was  met  by  a  fa- 
naticism only  more  dangerous  because  more  powerful, 
more  active,  and  more  virulent. 

Mirabeau  had  died  on  April  second,  a  fortnight  be- 
fore the  king's  attempted  retreat  to  St.  Cloud.  Al- 
ready the  terrors  of  the  popular  passion  he  had  done  so 
much  to  excite  were  before  his  eyes,  and  up  to  the  very 
moment  of  his  fatal  seizure  he  was  engaged  with 
Malouet  and  others  on  a  plan  to  stay  the  portentous 
storm  of  revolution  now  on  the  horizon.  In  vain. 
''Dormir" — to  sleep,  he  wrote  with  the  feebleness  of  ex- 
haustion, and  died.  The  Paris  magistracy,  in  a  mo- 
ment of  sanity,  were  simultaneously  contemplating 
measures  to  secure  liberty  of  worship  for  nonjuring 
Catholics,  but  they  were  as  effectually  checked  by  vio- 
lence as 'he  by  death.  The  stream  of  persecuting 
frenzy  fretted  against  all  barriers.    Those  who  sup- 


154        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


ported  the  Constitutionals  developed  into  a  political 
party  styling  themselves  "patriots,"  while  they  began 
to  stigmatize  the  supporters  of  those  who  refused  the 
oath  as  aristocrats. 

For  a  moment  the  reaction  against  the  shocking 
inhumanity  shown  to  the  Sisters  of  Charity  enabled 
the  Assembly  calmly  to  discuss  the  whole  question  of 
how  religious  liberty  was  to  be  exercised.  On  May 
second,  Talleyrand,  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
which  the  matter  had  been  referred,  presented  his  re- 
port. It  pleaded  superbly  for  complete  liberty,  and 
denounced  mere  toleration  as  an  unworthy  and  un- 
necessary shift.  The  practical  solution  of  the  diffi- 
culty, he  thought,  was  to  be  found  in  permitting  non- 
juror priests  to  officiate  in  the  state  churches  at  hours 
other  than  those  of  regular  service.  The  plan  was 
actually  put  into  operation  and  worked  well  in  many 
parish  churches  and  chapels,  but  only  for  a  very  short 
time.  On  June  second  an  effort  was  made  to  reopen 
the  church  of  the  Theatins  for  nonjuring  worship. 
The  church  was  unfortunately  most  conspicuous  on 
the  Quai  des  Theatins,  now  the  Quai  Voltaire,  and 
again  the  mob  of  Paris  intervened  and  shut  the  doors. 
The  cowardly  flight  of  Louis  to  Varennes  on  June 
twenty-first  broke  down  all  restraints.  Measure  after 
measure,  each  more  rigorous  than  the  preceding,  was 
put  into  force  against  the  nonjurors.  Constitutional 
ecclesiastics  in  many  places  identified  themselves  with 
the  radicals,  notably  Gobel  in  Paris  and  Fauchet  in 
Calvados.  Camus  and  the  Jansenists  resisted  every 
effort  at  conciliation  or  accommodation.  When  the 
National  or  Constituent  Assembly  gave  way  to  the 
newly  elected  Legislative  on  September  thirtieth,  eva- 
sion, strife,  dissension,  violence,  prevailed  over  the 
whole  land. 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW 


X 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW 

THUS  Jansenist,  philosopher,  and  Protestant  had 
inaugurated  their  work.  It  was  not  a  good  work 
because  the  materials  were  not  good,  the  structure  was 
ill  adapted  to  its  uses,  and  those  who  were  to  live  in  it 
refused  to  trust  their  lives  to  its  shelter.  The  Jansen- 
ists  under  Camus  had  arranged  to  depapalize  France; 
the  philosophers  under  Mirabeau  to  decatholicize  it; 
the  Protestants  under  Rabaud  to  erastianize  it ;  the  rad- 
icals under  Hebert  were  preparing  to  dechristianize  it. 
Decatholicize  and  dechristianize  were  the  words  re- 
spectively of  Mirabeau  and  Hebert.  The  estates  of 
the  church  were  secularized ;  its  ministers  were  to  be 
public  functionaries;  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  as  Lanjui- 
nais  with  exasperating  iteration  styled  the  incumbent  of 
St.  Peter's  chair,  was  to  be  no  longer  a  sovereign  pon- 
tiff, but  a  personal  expression  of  ecclesiastical  unity  as 
far  merely  as  that  unity  existed  and  the  parties  thereto 
assented.  The  Civil  Constitution  embodied  these  ideas, 
and  its  makers,  seeking  with  perfect  good  faith  to 
inaugurate  true  reform,  inaugurated  chaos. 

But  the  finishing  touch  was  put  to  the  work  of  de- 
struction, the  consummation  of  dismay  and  ruin  was 
achieved,  not  by  the  Constitutionals,  but  by  the  old 
ecclesiastics.  Once  and  again  they  had  forged  the  bolts 
by  which  the  walls  of  their  own  Jerusalem  were  riven ; 
they  now  set  the  petards  which  burst  open  the  breaches 

157 


158        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


and  admitted  the  conquering  foe.  For  their  instru- 
ment of  final  ruin  they  chose  no  less  a  personage  than 
the  king.  Louis  had  become  the  facile  tool  of  Jesuitry 
and  prelacy.  With  "death  in  his  soul/'  but  with  joy 
in  his  eyes,  he  had  signed  the  Civil  Constitution,  while 
simultaneously  he  was  planning  to  take  refuge  from 
his  own  acts  by  escaping  to  Montmedy.  This  was  in 
October,  1790.  The  scheme  having  failed,  he  contin- 
ued to  plot  for  the  same  end,  though  outwardly  even 
more  sympathetic  with  the  movement  of  the  hour. 
Turned  back  from  St.  Cloud,  yet  the  subsequent  circular 
of  April  twenty-third,  1791,  to  all  the  courts  of  Europe 
had  asseverated  that  in  all  his  acts  he  was  entirely  free 
and  perfectly  sincere.  The  Assembly  was  full  of  en- 
thusiasm about  his  conduct,  and  to  a  deputation  sent  by 
it  to  congratulate  him  he  declared  that  if  they  could 
read  the  bottom  of  his  soul  they  w^ould  find  there  "feel- 
ings calculated  to  justify  the  confidence  of  the  nation. 
All  mutual  distrust  would  be  banished  and  we  would 
all  be  happy."  Yet  simultaneously  and  constantly  he 
was  plotting  with  Bouille  and  planning  flight.  Feign- 
ing, scheming,  lying,  acting,  the  king  was  stable  in 
nothing  except  the  grim  determination  not  to  lose  his 
soul,  and  that  was  exactly  what  his  confessors  assured 
him  he  would  do  if  the  Civil  Constitution  should  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  Galilean  Church  and  work  smoothly 
by  royal  aid.  This  was  the  central  motive  of  the 
final  effort  to  leave  France,  made  on  the  night  of  June 
twentieth,  and  thwarted  by  the  loose  discipline  and  dis- 
obedience of  Bouille's  troops.  All  France  was  con- 
fused and  bewildered  by  the  virtual  abdication:  face 
to  face  with  innumerable  and  awful  dangers,  the  nation 
felt  itself  to  be  deserted  by  its  head  and  well-nigh  lost. 
The  consequences  from  a  political  point  of  view  are 
incalculable.    While  conservative  instinct  struggled 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  159 


to  restore  the  king  and  surround  him  with  proper  safe- 
guards, yet  royalty  in  his  person  was  discredited — nay, 
more,  it  was  actually  suspended  for  three  months; 
democrats  and  republicans  made  a  great  gain,  if  not 
in  numbers  at  least  in  prestige,  for  during  ninety 
days  their  plan  was  actually  put  into  successful  op- 
eration. 

Now,  the  king's  motive  for  such  base  inconsistency 
was  rendered  perfectly  clear  in  a  proclamation  made  on 
leaving  Paris,  and  generally  believed  to  have  been 
written  by  himself.  If  it  were,  it  is  his  chef-d'oeuvre 
of  criticism  and  sincerity,  unequalled  by  any  other  of 
his  performances.  The  scathing  arraignment  of  the 
constitution  of  1791  which  he  then  made  is  the  final 
condemnation  of  that  paper,  and  no  critic  since  has 
had  anything  substantial  to  add.  But,  above  all,  the 
royal  document  makes  clear  that  second  to  no  other 
object  in  his  flight  was  his  determination  to  regain  his 
religious  liberty.  With  emphatic  detail  he  recites  the 
entire  process  whereby  religious  anarchy  had  been 
created  and  his  own  conscience  violated :  the  dissen- 
sions of  the  realm  amid  w^hich  he  had  been  rendered 
odious  by  his  attachment  to  the  faith  of  his  sires;  his 
violent  arrest  when  starting  for  St.  Cloud,  and  his  im- 
prisonment in  the  Tuileries;  the  encouragement  of 
rioters  by  the  National  Guard ;  the  compulsory  dismis- 
sal of  his  chaplains,  and  finally  the  hated  services  at  St. 
Germain  I'Auxerrois  conducted  by  a  Constitutional 
priest.^ 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  conception  of  a  free 
church  in  a  free  state  had  never  presented  itself  to 
French  minds.  The  example  of  the  United  States  had 
wrought  powerfully  on  public  opinion  for  ten  years 
past,  and  Lafayette,  though  sometimes  weak  and  the- 
*  Choix  de  Rapports,  Opinions  et  Discourse  IV.  97. 


i6o       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


atrical  in  trying  crises  and  when  removed  from  Wash- 
ington's judicious  mastery,  had  in  this  respect  at  least 
faithfully  proclaimed  what  he  had  seen  and  noted.  His 
simple  solution  of  the  whole  question  was  complete  lib- 
erty of  worship,  and  every  man  to  pay  for  that  form 
under  which  he  chose  to  do  homage  to  his  Maker.^ 
The  notion  began  to  find  supporters  even  among  the 
Ultramontanes,  and  there  was  agitation  in  its  behalf 
even  among  the  Constitutionals.  Had  the  monarchical 
constitution  of  1791  been  modified  accordingly,  France 
might  have  been  spared  untold  miseries.  It  went  far, 
and  granted  amnesty  for  all  transgressions  connected 
with  the  Revolution.  Further,  the  proposition  to  em- 
body in  it  the  whole  Civil  Constitution  was  rejected. 
Consequently  many  Catholics  who  abhorred  the  latter 
document  took  the  civil  oath  to  the  political  constitu- 
tion with  gladness,  and  the  king  swore  with  some  sin- 
cerity to  maintain  it.  Yet  it  explicitly  affirmed  in  its 
first  article  that  ''citizens  have  the  right  to  elect  or 
choose  the  ministers  of  their  religion,"  which  is  the 
basic  principle  of  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy ; 
and  it  provided  for  the  support  of  those  thus  chosen. 
This  last  is  the  essential  and  vicious  principle  which 
left  the  door  wide  open  for  further  iniquity. 

The  spread  of  opinions  making  for  emancipation 
was  tremendously  furthered  by  the  continuation  of 
disorder  under  the  Legislative  Assembly,  the  newly 
elected  body  of  deputies  which  began  its  ill-starred  ca- 
reer of  mediocrity  on  October  first,  1791.  The  record 
of  these  ecclesiastical  disorders  is  too  long  and  dreary 

^Farewell  Address.    (Moni-  idea  of  a  prescribed  and  domi- 

tenr,  October  11,  1791.)    "Lib-  nant  cult."    For  the  utter  re- 

erty  could  never  be  firmly  es-  jection  of  his  plan  to  adopt  the 

tablished     should     intolerance  system  of  the  United  States, 

under  the  guise  of  nondescript  see  his  Memoires,  III.  62. 
patriotism  dare  to  harbor  the 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  i6i 


to  be  chronicled  in  detail.  Indeed,  the  facts  are  to  this 
day  somewhat  uncertain.  But  some  things  are  clear — 
that  there  were  outrages,  and  that  the  area  of  outrages 
extended  with  every  day. 

On  one  hand,  the  authenticity  of  the  papal  briefs 
was  now  denied  by  many  of  the  nonjurors  who  still 
hoped  for  peace;  on  the  other,  their  contents  were 
accepted  by  the  irreconcilable  Ultramontanes,  and  exe- 
crated by  those  of  the  radicals  who,  like  the  ecclesi- 
astical extremists,  saw  their  account  in  a  civil  war. 
The  sincere  and  embittered  nonconformists  inveighed 
against  the  oath-bound  priests  as  defiled,  and  the  emi- 
grant bishops  flooded  the  country  with  pastoral  letters 
giving  minute  instructions  to  the  faithful  how  to  evade 
the  law.  The  Constitutionals  steadily  identified  them- 
selves to  a  greater  degree  with  a  political  party,  the 
so-called  patriots,  and  as  far  as  possible  made  their 
religion  a  matter  of  state. 

Tumult  and  scandal  became  rife  not  only  in  V^endee, 
the  province  whose  people  were  the  most  profoundly 
attached  to  religion,  as  they  knew  it,  of  any  in  all 
France,  but  in  Deux-Sevres,  at  the  gate  of  the  capital, 
in  Alaine-et-Loire,  Calvados,  and  in  short  everywhere. 
Rumors  of  rebellious  excesses  by  the  nonjurors  reached 
Paris  by  every  new  courier  from  the  departments.  It 
seemed  impossible  to  secure  any  exact  information,  for 
apparently  the  country  population  was  in  league  with 
the  rioters.  One  thing  alone  was  certain :  the  fact  of 
the  riots.  Bands  of  armed  men  under  the  banner  of 
religion,  mostly  nonconformists,  scoured  and  terrorized 
the  country.  Even  women  trooped  together  in  un- 
bridled frenzy  and  rabbled  the  Constitutional  priests. 
Funeral  and  marriage  processions  dispersed  at  the  mere 
approach  of  a  Constitutional  priest  as  of  a  thing  defiled. 

The  general  disorganization  was  so  complete  that 


i62        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  all-important  taxes  could  not  be  collected.  Such 
at  least  were  the  alarming  reports  made  both  to  the 
Constituent  ^  and  to  the  Legislative  by  the  regular 
civil  authorities  and  by  special  investigating  commit- 
tees. There  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  the  substantial 
truth  of  them,  nor  likewise  the  generally  accepted  ac- 
count that  where  they  were  strong  enough  the  juror 
party  of  the  patriots  engaged  in  reprisals  of  much  hor- 
ror.^ The  nonjuring  priests  in  many  places  were 
massacred ;  throughout  the  provinces  some  of  the  more 
seditious  were  imprisoned  as  law-breakers  and  severely 
handled;  thousands  disguised  themselves  and  worked 
as  day  laborers.  The  rescript  of  Louis  on  his  flight 
to  Varennes  had  specified  all  his  personal  woes;  the 
most  important,  as  has  been  explained,  was  the  restraint 
of  his  conscience  in  the  exercise  of  his  religion,  and  in 
this  he  had  expressed,  as  was  now  perfectly  evident,  the 
feeling  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  Roman  churchmen 
of  France.  They  could  not  fly,  so  they  fought  like  wild 
animals  at  bay;  he  had  tried  flight,  and  when  turned 
back  to  Paris,  he  paltered,  trimmed,  and  hurried  on  to 
his  fate. 

In  the  new  legislature  were  ten  Constitutional  bishops 
and  seventeen  Constitutional  vicars.  Not  one  was  a 
man  of  mark.  One  of  the  bishops  was  the  notorious 
Fauchet  of  Calvados,  who,  under  the  guise  of  pastoral 
visitations  throughout  that  department,  had  so  inflamed 
the  populace  by  his  anarchistic  harangues  that  by  order 
of  the  Assembly  he  had  been  arrested  and  ordered  to 
trial.  But  a  Jacobin  mob  had  first  rescued  him  and  then 
elected  him  to  the  Legislative.    Among  the  lay  mem- 


^  Especially  that  of  Legrand 
on  August  4,  1 791,  which  made 
a  great  stir.  It  demanded 
prompt  and  vigorous  measures 
to  repress  the  disorders  in  the 


north,  declaring  that  modera- 
tion must  be  discarded  for  the 
sake  of  the  public  safety. 

^  See  Barruel  Histoire  du 
Clerge,  p.  44- 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  163 


bers  were  a  few  moderate  men  from  the  defunct  Con- 
stituent, sitting  on  the  right.  They  were  ahnost  lost 
among  the  throngs  of  new  men.  The  left  was  com- 
posed of  brilliant  but  unstable  Girondists,  and  the  ex- 
treme left  of  a  few  violent  Jacobins,  whose  adherents 
were  growing  hourly  in  numbers  and  strength  through 
the  indecision  of  their  opponents  and  the  support  of  the 
now  organized  and  impatient  Paris  populace.  This 
was  the  engine  of  tyranny  for  an  unconstitutional,  il- 
legal power — what  the  Greeks  would  have  called  mob 
government,  or  ochlocracy.  It  regularly  crowded  the 
precincts  of  the  hall,  interfering  with  the  feeble  efforts 
at  calm  discussion  or  wise  legislation  by  uproarious 
manifestations  of  assent  or  dissent.  The  great  mass 
of  the  delegates  who  occupied  the  centre  were  dazed 
and  inconstant,  showing  little  interest  in  any  real  prin- 
ciple. Their  mediocre  powers  were  fully  occupied  in 
a  feeble  alertness  as  to  how  events  would  turn.  The 
body  as  a  whole  understood  its  commission  to  be  the 
overthrow  of  every  hindrance  to  the  Revolution ;  it 
developed  into  the  servile  instrument  of  clubs,  cabals, 
and  violent  agitators. 

Whatever  the  faults  of  the  Constituent  had  been,  at 
least  it  contained  men  whose  eloquent  pleading  com- 
manded the  attention  of  the  nation,  and  it  never  in 
all  its  thirteen  hundred  and  nine  enactments  at- 
tacked personal  liberty  or  conscience,  as  the  members 
understood  the  words.  The  record  of  its  debates 
clearly  shows  that  nonjuring  was  never  held  to  be  a 
crime  against  the  state.  The  Legislative  had  some 
members  distinguished  by  piety,  wisdom,  and  modera- 
tion; it  had  many  Girondists  of  insight,  brilliancy,  and 
courage;  but  its  better  element  could  not  assert  itself, 
its  shrewdness  was  not  translated  into  action,  and  the 
dull  homogeneity  of  its  vast  majority  had  no  motive 


1 64        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


power  except  blind  zeal.  A  persecuting  spirit,  though 
embryonic,  existed  among  the  extreme  men  of  both 
left  and  right,  and  for  its  development  it  found  a  per- 
fect nidus  in  such  a  body. 

When  the  legislature  began  its  sessions  many  of 
what  were  now  called  refractory  priests  continued  to 
minister  in  their  respective  parishes.  The  committees 
appointed  to  investigate  the  ecclesiastical  troubles  of 
the  various  departments  brought  in  reports  which  were 
temperate  and  fair.  They  admitted  that  all  the  trouble 
came  from  the  imposition  of  the  clerical  oath  as  pro- 
vided in  the  constitution,  and  from  the  complete  con- 
fidence which  the  simple  folk  reposed  in  their  pastors. 
The  latter  were  now  alienated  from  the  Revolution,  and 
while  some  of  them  were  content  to  let  politics  severely 
alone,  yet  others  were  beyond  peradventure  conspiring 
to  discredit  the  government  by  a  senseless  resistance  to 
all  the  ecclesiastical  measures  of  the  Assembly.  The 
sometime  Bishop  of  Lugon  appealed  to  his  faithful 
clergy  to  regard  the  decree  of  May  seventh  as  a  trap  to 
lead  unwary  orthodox  into  cooperation  with  heretical 
schismatics;  if  ministering  in  the  parish  church,  the 
dissident  priest  was  to  fly  on  the  appearance  of  a  Con- 
stitutional, and  taking  refuge  in  any  barn,  shed,  or 
other  shelter,  was  to  celebrate  the  mass,  even  with  ves- 
sels of  pewter  and  chasubles  of  calico.  They  were, 
however,  to  assert  themselves  as  the  sole  legitimate  in- 
cumbents, and  keep  in  secret  careful  minutes  of  all 
cases  of  intrusion.  The  Constitutionals,  it  was  asserted, 
could  perform  no  valid  act :  marriage,  sepulture,  or  bap- 
tism. Any  one  refusing  to  acknowledge  this  and  asso- 
ciating himself  in  any  form  with  the  schismatics  was 
guilty  of  mortal  sin.^    This  was  a  typical  instance  and 

^  See  the  report  of  Gallois  vember  12,  1791.  The  report 
and  Gensonnee,  Moniteur,  No-     of  Veirieu,  given  in  the  Ar- 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  165 


displayed  the  universal  tenor  of  the  instructions  given 
by  the  irreconcilable  propaganda  throughout  France. 

At  that  time  the  old  parish  priests,  as  was  said,  still 
formed  a  great  majority  of  the  country  clergy.  The 
simple  reason  was  that  as  yet  but  few  Constitutionals 
had  been  installed.  Where  they  had  been  inducted 
and  had  been  honestly  striving  to  perform  their  func- 
tions, probably  not  one  in  fifty  of  their  parishioners 
could  be  induced  even  to  attend  church;  the  peasantry 
in  flocks  followed  their  old  pastors  to  the  Ultramon- 
tane conventicles.  Almost  without  exception,  the  re- 
fractory priests  abstained  from  their  legal  privilege  of 
using  the  church  edifices  at  irregular  hours,  and  the 
reason  they  gave  was  fear  of  pollution.  This  led  to 
the  almost  universal  use  of  the  term  aristocrat  as  an 
opprobrious  epithet  for  them  and  their  followers.  The 
civil  authorities  were  in  most  places  only  too  ready 
to  banish  the  nonjuring  priests;  but  they  shrank  from 
using  force,  for  that  would  be  the  signal  for  civil  war. 

These  were  briefly  the  facts  as  laid  before  the  Legis- 
lative. Putting  aside  all  secular  business,  it  began 
its  sessions  by  stirring  debates  on  religious  afl^airs. 
On  one  side  it  was  argued  that  such  conditions  involved 
the  safety  of  the  state ;  since  the  courts  were  in  the  main 
inimical  to  the  Civil  Constitution,  legal  remedies  were 
vain;  it  would  be  well,  therefore,  to  force  the  nonjurors 
into  the  capital  cities  of  the  departments,  where  they 
could  be  under  surveillance.  Further  ecclesiastical  leg- 
islation, it  was  clear,  must  be  the  flrst  concern  of  the 
Legislative.  The  nonconformist  clergy  must  be  de- 
prived of  all  their  stipends,  unless  they  could  prove  that 


chives  Parlementaires,  XXXV. 
42,  recites  the  use  of  their  reli- 
gious assemblies  by  the  refrac- 
tories to  foment  sedition.  It 
was  proposed  to  lay  upon  those 


found  guilty  of  this  offence  a 
penalty  amounting  to  double 
the  sum  total  of  their  real  and 
personal  taxes. 


i66        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


they  had  taken  the  civil  oath.  "Their  rehgion/*  said 
one  orator,  ^'consists  in  counter-revolution.  Their  God 
is  not  your  God;  their  God  is  beyond  the  Rhine." 

This  idea  caught  at  least  a  large  minority  of  the  Leg- 
islative, and  Fauchet  received  close  attention  when  he 
denounced  the  nonjurors  as  a  traitorous,  bloodthirsty 
pack,  concocting  underhand  schemes,  furthering  the 
emigration  of  prelates  and  aristocrats,  and  secretly  re- 
mitting French  treasure  across  the  borders  to  be  spent 
in  efforts  to  overthrow  the  existing  government  and 
undo  the  Revolution.  He  proposed  that  money  sup- 
port in  every  form  be  withdrawn  from  all  ecclesiastics 
who  would  not  take  the  oath,  except  from  the  aged 
and  infirm;  the  nonjurors  might  worship  in  their  own 
hired  halls,  but  not  in  the  churches;  and  if  they  dis- 
turbed the  public  worship  in  any  way  they  might  be 
imprisoned. 

But  at  first  the  majority  of  the  Legislative  were  for 
moderation.  In  the  main  they  were  still  royalists,  and 
they  could  not  imagine  a  monarchical  state  without  a 
state  religion.  It  was  with  contentment  that  they  heard 
the  counter-pleas  for  broad  tolerance  and  for  further 
efforts  to  smooth  the  way.  Peaceable  citizens  respect- 
ing the  law,  it  was  said,  must  under  the  most  elemen- 
tary principles  of  the  constitution  be  let  alone,  and  could 
not  be  deported  from  their  domiciles  without  violence 
to  the  whole  character  of  the  Revolution.  It  was 
Torne,  Constitutional  bishop  of  the  Cher,  who  assever- 
ated that  refusal  of  the  oath  was  not  a  criminal  act. 
As  long  as  these  implacable  and  unsociable  refractories 
merely  held  aloof  they  were  well  within  their  rights. 
Sedition,  of  course,  was  another  matter ;  and  they,  like 
all  citizens,  must  take  the  consequences  under  the  law. 
Let  them  worship  at  their  own  cost,  not  merely  in  their 
own  buildings,  but  in  the  churches  at  such  hours  as 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  167 


the  local  directories  might  determine.  Authority  could 
not  control  religious  differences,  but  the  Legislative 
might  set  forth  some  such  plan  as  reconciling  perfect 
religious  liberty  with  the  public  order. 

Alas !  the  nonjuring  clergy  were  truly  refractory. 
At  Caen  some  hundreds  of  female  furies  stoned  the 
Constitutional  priest,  drove  him  to  the  sanctuary  of  his 
altar,  and  were  there  proceeding  to  hang  him  to  the 
sanctuary  lamp  when,  bruised,  cut,  and  almost  sense- 
less, he  was  rescued  by  the  National  Guard.  In  the 
department  of  ]\Iaine-et-Loire,  under  the  instigation  of 
the  nonjuring  priests,  armed  bands  numbering  some 
thousands  scoured  the  land,  assassinated  the  Constitu- 
tional priests  in  their  own  churches,  and  hewed  down 
the  doors  of  those  which  had  been  closed.  In  the  pre- 
vailing hot  and  growing  lust  for  destruction  even  secu- 
lar buildings  were  destroyed. 

In  the  midst  of  these  excesses,  while  messenger  after 
messenger  was  bringing  news  of  outrage  to  the  door  of 
the  Legislative,  Gensonnee,  a  moderate  Girondist,  finally 
proposed  a  complete  separation  of  religion  and  govern- 
ment, and  urged  a  virtual  repeal  of  the  Civil  Constitu- 
tion. It  is  likely  that  the  consternation  of  those  who 
had  framed  it  was  great;  their  fine-spun  theories,  like 
all  others  not  grounded  in  experience,  were  now  utterly 
discredited.  Ere  long  there  arose  a  clamor,  even  among 
the  Constitutionals  themselves,  for  the  right  of  every 
communion  to  regulate  its  own  internal  affairs  without 
government  help  or  interference.  ''Why,"  exclaimed 
De  Moy,  Constitutional  vicar  of  the  church  of  St.  Lau- 
rent in  Paris — "why  make  the  religion  of  Rome  Consti- 
tutional at  all?  Let  the  nation  cease  to  nominate  the 
Roman  ministers,  and  treat  Catholics  as  it  does  Jews 
and  Protestants,  who  call  each  their  own  rabbis  and 
pastors.    The  Roman  Catholics  should  do  likewise." 


i68        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Somewhat  later  he  expressed  these  views  in  a  powerful 
pamphlet,  and  denounced  the  Civil  Constitution  as  the 
feet  of  clay  to  the  image  of  gold.^ 

Meantime,  without  the  walls  of  the  Assembly  discon- 
tent with  all  ecclesiasticism,  of  whatever  form,  was 
rapidly  growing.  Perfidiously,  but  successfully,  the 
sceptical  element  far  and  near  confused  the  public 
mind  until  tens  of  thousands  could  not  distinguish  be- 
tween ecclesiasticism  and  Christianity.  For  both  a 
substitute  was  in  preparation. 

Rousseau's  doctrine  of  national  boundaries  as  deter- 
mined by  nature,  and  of  the  regeneration  of  man  by  a 
return  to  nature,  corresponded  in  a  high  degree  to  the 
inarticulate  longings  which  characterized  western  Eu- 
rope throughout  the  whole  decline  of  feudalism.  The 
one  all-sufhcient  answer,  under  the  monarchies,  for  any 
deed  of  violence  always  was :  reasons  of  state.  This 
direful  phrase  descended  to  the  Rousseau  democrats 
in  undiminished  vigor.  The  fanatical  idealists  were 
quite  as  ready  for  political  and  civil  violence  as  for 
religious  persecution.  The  passion  for  unity  and 
homogeneity  in  territory  and  institutions  was  of  the 
very  essence  of  revolutionary  hearts;  spiteful  against 
the  old  "infamy,"  and  clearly  apprehending  Pius's 
meaning  when  he  identified  himself  and  Roman  Cathol- 
icism in  France  with  the  monarchy,  the  radicals  passed 
easily  to  the  concept  of  fatherland — one  not  only  in 
territory  and  institutions,  but  in  a  national  religion. 
They  had  identical  views  with  those  who  justified  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  as  a  measure,  not 
against  the  heretics,  but  against  rebels;  magnifying 
in  a  high  degree  the  religious  sentiment  as  indispensable 
in  life,  they  asserted  that  for  a  perfect  nation  there  must 


*  Bibliotheque  Historique  de  la  Revolution,  Vol.  CXLII., 
quoted  in  Jervis,  p,  192, 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  169 


be  a  national  religion,  Christian  possibly,  certainly 
not  Roman;  in  the  last  resort  broad  enough,  even 
though  pagan,  to  include  all  Frenchmen ;  the  majority 
having  chosen  it,  all  recusants  would  be  traitors.  For 
the  agitation  and  support  of  this  doctrine  there  was  at 
hand  an  institution  as  old  as  France  itself — that  of 
the  public  festivals,  primevally  sprung  from  the  cult  of 
natural  or  pagan  religions,  but  incorporated  and  mod- 
ified into  the  system  of  Roman  Catholicism  by  the  ap- 
plication of  a  very  thin  gloss  indeed. 

Under  the  earlier  monarchy,  these  public  ceremonies 
were  celebrated  by  rites  of  the  church  in  honor  of  the 
king  or  of  God.  The  scenic  effects  were  highly  elab- 
orate, representing  for  the  most  part  scriptural  sub- 
jects. As  years  rolled  by  the  secular  influence  of 
heathen  Rome  became  predominant  in  art,  letters,  and 
law.  Even  the  church  w^as  not  free  from  the  aesthetic 
power  of  classicism,  and  the  public  festivals  were  per- 
meated by  it.  There  arose  the  strangest  and  most 
fantastic  confusion  in  the  public  mind  between  classi- 
cal and  scriptural  subjects,  concerning  both  persons 
and  places.  Since  the  very  corner-stone  of  absolutism 
was  the  Roman  law,  secular  life  in  France  grew  contin- 
uously more  and  more  classical  in  its  judgments  and 
ideals,  until  beneath  the  veneer  of  ecclesiasticism  it  was 
the  heir,  not  only  of  Graeco-Roman  morals  and  learning 
in  their  best  pagan  form,  but  of  Graeco-Roman  vices 
too;  so-called  good  society,  it  has  been  charged,  culti- 
vated certain  of  the  shocking  and  unnatural,  nameless 
and  semi-oriental  practices  which  characterized  the  se- 
cret cults  of  both  Athens  and  Rome  in  the  years  of 
their  decline.  This  influence  was  felt  in  the  festivals, 
which  too  often  were  thus  either  turned  into  or  accom- 
panied by  orgies  and  saturnalia.  At  the  best  they  be- 
came more  secular  than  religious,  even  on  the  high 


I/O        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


feast  days  of  the  church.  The  thought  of  ehminating 
the  rehgious  element  entirely  was  therefore  not  far 
fetched.  The  first  proposal  to  that  effect  was  made 
anonymously  in  1789,  that  an  annual  secular  holi- 
day should  be  decreed  in  honor  of  the  Fourth  of 
August. 

The  project  received  no  general  or  spontaneous  sup- 
port, but  Talleyrand,  in  his  memoir  on  public  instruc- 
tion dated  September  tenth,  1791,  dwells  at  length  on 
the  advantage  of  national  festivals  like  those  of  anti- 
quity, stripped,  however,  of  all  religious  character  or 
significance.  Their  aim  should  be  purely  moral — that 
is,  of  all  except  two,  recurring  annually,  to  confirm  lib- 
erty under  law  and  equality,  on  July  fourteenth  and 
August  fourth;  the  others  should  not  be  periodical. 
Appointed  and  celebrated  according  to  the  needs  of  a 
free  people  to  commemorate  any  event  which  might 
confirm  the  precept  most  needed  at  the  moment,  they 
should  be  adorned  with  all  the  human  brilliancy  which 
the  fine  arts,  music,  the  stage,  contests  of  strength  and 
skill  and  splendid  prizes  for  success  could  call  forth — 
to  render  better  and  happier  the  aged  by  recollection, 
the  young  men  by  triumph,  the  children  by  expectation. 

A  similar  paper  on  the  same  topic  was  written  by  Ca- 
banis  for  Mirabeau ;  but,  on  account  of  his  death,  it  was 
never  delivered  by  the  great  orator,  or  even  used  in  any 
way  by  him  for  the  basis  of  a  speech,  as  was  his  custom. 
This  essay  takes  the  matter  even  more  seriously.  The 
practice  of  liberty  being  complicated  and  difficult,  provi- 
sion must  be  made  for  all  of  man's  desires,  physical  and 
moral.  The  physical  wants  of  man  are  easily  supplied, 
but  his  moral  cravings  for  sympathy  and  friendship, 
his  devotion  to  country,  the  gratification  of  all  the  sweet, 
ennobling  yearnings  which  make  for  humanity,  how 
shall  these  be  satisfied?    Religion  neglects  the  wants 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  171 


of  ''here  below,"  preaching  self-denial,  renunciation, 
and  solitude  for  the  sake  of  closer  companionship  with 
God.  In  this  majestic  thought  the  state  can  have 
no  share;  the  object  of  national  festivals  must  be  far 
different — viz.,  the  gratification  of  human  longings,  the 
furtherance  of  mirth,  joy,  and  contentment,  the  wor- 
ship of  liberty,  the  worship  of  law.  Such  documents 
as  these  two,  though  not  widely  circulated,  expressed 
the  common  mind  and  to  some  extent  formed  it. 

But  the  fatal  error  of  French  thought  was  so  in- 
grained into  every  religious  and  philosophic  sect  that 
when  the  great  Festival  of  Federation,  as  it  was  called, 
was  celebrated  in  Paris  on  July  fourteenth,  1790,  by 
six  hundred  thousand  persons,  Talleyrand,  as  Bishop 
of  Autun,  said  mass  before  the  assembled  multitude. 
The  numerous  celebrations  throughout  the  country 
were  also  of  a  religious  character;  the  Constitutional 
clergy  marched  first  to  the  ''altar  of  the  country," 
and  after  them  the  National  Guard.  Yet  it  would 
be  altogether  wrong  to  consider  the  holiday  as  hav- 
ing had  a  religious  character  beyond  its  having 
preserved  in  the  celebration  an  outward  respect  for 
religion.  The  local  reunions  and  the  general  assem- 
bling of  like-minded  men  throughout  and  from  all 
parts  of  France  certainly  produced  an  enormous  ef- 
fect in  unifying  and  consolidating  the  movement  of 
the  Revolution.  The  oath  to  the  constitution  gave 
solemnity  to  the  whole.  Enthusiasm  caught  the  vast 
multitudes,  and  it  was  not  without  reason  that  recourse 
was  had  again  and  again  to  similar  celebrations  for 
the  rousing  and  strengthening  of  patriotism.  The 
festivals  of  the  Revolution  became  a  fact  of  the  first 
importance,  for  they  supplied  one  element  of  wor- 
ship, the  common  assembling  of  men ;  at  the  same  time 
they  insidiously  directed  the  quasi-religious  enthusiasm 


1/2        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


of  the  multitude  toward  the  idea  of  country  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  God. 

The  love  of  pageantry  had  displayed  itself  a  month 
earlier,  on  June  nineteenth,  1790,  when  the  Baron  Ana- 
charsis  Cloots  of  Cleves  presented  himself  before  the 
bar  of  the  Assembly  at  the  head  of  a  deputation  com- 
prising men  of  some  twenty  different  countries,  each  in 
his  particular  national  costume,  that  they  might  con- 
gratulate France  on  the  fall  of  despotism.  This  scene 
has  always  been  represented  as  theatrical  and  absurd ;  in 
reality  it  was  effective  and  impressive  both  among  those 
present  and  the  people  at  large.  It  w^as  the  precursor  of 
numerous  minor  civic  celebrations  in  and  about  Paris, 
and  of  a  considerable  number  in  the  provinces.  All 
these  were  destitute  of  religious  character — utterly  so. 
One  of  the  common  mottoes  displayed  on  the  banners 
was  Reqiiiescat  infcrnis,  i.  e.,  the  aristocracy;  and  the 
favorite  symbol  w^as  the  torch  of  liberty.  This  move- 
ment made  rapid  progress  and  within  a  year  culminated 
in  what  might  be  called  a  truly  national  festival. 

In  1778  the  Paris  clergy  had  refused  burial  to  the 
remains  of  Voltaire,  and  by  permission  of  the  min- 
istry they  were  buried  at  the  Abbey  of  Sellieres  in 
Champagne.  In  1791  this  property,  confiscated  and 
sequestered  a  year  earlier,  was  sold  to  a  private  person. 
Several  requests  were  made  that  the  body  be  brought  to 
Paris,  and  on  May  eighth  the  Assembly  so  ordered ;  on 
the  thirty-first  they  decreed  a  public  funeral  and  the  de- 
posit of  the  remains  in  the  Church  of  St.  Genevieve, 
which  had  been  secularized  as  a  Walhalla  or  Pantheon 
for  the  great  men  of  France.  The  directory  of  the  De- 
partment of  Paris  w^as  charged  with  arrangements  and 
details ;  it  in  turn  appealed  to  the  city  wards,  and  they 
appointed  a  committee  representative  of  the  capital. 
This  aroused  a  storm  of  fierce,  indignant  opposition 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  173 


among  pious  people;  many  of  the  clerical  and  lay  ad- 
herents of  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  joining 
in  a  powerful  protest.  The  charge — now,  alas  !  only  too 
true — was  flatly  made  that  the  friends  of  the  Constitu- 
tion were  no  longer  the  friends  of  religion.  But  noth- 
ing could  call  a  halt.  A  superb  catafalque  forty  feet  in 
height,  designed  by  David  and  made  of  bronze,  con- 
veyed the  body  toward  Paris  stage  by  stage,  amid  the 
acclamation  of  the  thronging  populace.  An  enormous 
and  costly  ceremony  was  arranged  at  the  metropolis, 
and  carried  through  in  spite  of  tempestuous  rain.  On 
July  eleventh  the  corpse  was  deposited  in  the  Pantheon 
with  honors  of  parade,  eloquence,  and  solemnity  such 
as  recall  nothing  short  of  an  apotheosis.^ 

Nothing  illuminates  the  swift  secularization  of 
French  society,  or  at  least  a  large  stratum  of  it,  like  the 
contemporary  accounts  of  Voltaire's  mortuary  prog- 
ress. There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  circum- 
stances would  have  been  substantially  different  in  any 
other  part  of  the  land.  The  coffin  was  opened  at 
Romilly  and  the  features  were  found  to  be  unmarred, 
scarcely  more  ghastly  than  in  life.  Fathers,  mothers, 
young  men,  maidens,  and  children  heaped  garlands 
about  the  bier  as  they  gazed  a  moment  in  tearful  silence 
and  passed  on.  As  the  procession  moved  from  place 
to  place,  it  was  headed  by  the  village  mayors  in  full 
civic  costume,  and  long  files  of  national  guards,  with 
branches  of  oak  and  laurel  in  the  muzzles  of  their  mus- 
kets, surrounded  the  funeral  chariot.  Thousands  of 
pilgrims  flocked  from  far  and  near,  many  touched  the 
sarcophagus  with  their  kerchiefs  and  then  devoutly 
kissed  the  fabric,  now  something  sacred,  to  be  stored 
up  as  a  cherished  keepsake. 

*  The  original  papers  may  be  found  in  Robinet,  Mouvement 
Religieux  a  Paris,  1789-1801,  I.  527. 


174        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


In  hamlet  after  hamlet  triumphal  arches  were  erected 
over  the  highway  at  the  entrance,  and  children  in  white 
strewed  the  streets  with  roses,  jasmine,  and  amaranth, 
moving  rhythmically  to  soft  strains  of  music  from 
choruses  and  bands  of  rustic  players.  Throughout  the 
countryside  the  idolatry  of  ecclesiastical  relics  was 
transferred  to  those  of  the  secular  saint.  In  the  out- 
skirts of  Paris  the  throngs  were  immense,  and  cries  of 
chastened  gladness  resounded  from  every  side  as  the 
remains  were  carried  to  the  site  of  the  Bastille.  There, 
on  a  pile  constructed  from  the  ancient  ruins  and 
adorned  with  myrtle  could  be  read  the  inscription : 
"Voltaire,  on  the  spot  where  tyranny  enchained  thee 
receive  the  homage  of  the  fatherland."  For  the  night 
was  set  a  guard  of  honor,  twelve  hundred ''Voltairians," 
professors  of  the  rising  cult.  As  the  masses  thronged 
to  gaze,  a  priest  in  one  of  the  groups  cried  out  in  bitter- 
ness :  "O  God,  thou  shalt  be  avenged !"  The  quick  re- 
joinder was  a  cheer  for  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rom- 
illy,  *Svho  have  preserved  for  us  the  body  of  Voltaire." 

Next  day  the  line  of  march  was  thronged  with  a  vast 
concourse,  whose  curiosity  and  enthusiasm  not  even 
the  wrath  of  the  elements  could  check.  In  the  proces- 
sion were  companies  of  soldiers,  of  Jacobins,  of  arti- 
sans, of  men  from  the  St.  Antoine  quarter  carrying  the 
banner  riddled  at  the  taking  of  the  Bastille,  of  students, 
of  provincial  citizens,  of  the  workmen  who  razed  the 
Bastille,  of  members  of  the  Academy  and  literary 
guilds,  of  magistrates,  ministers,  and  deputies.  There 
were  also  rank  on  rank  of  players  and  artists,  repre- 
senting the  stage,  sculpture,  and  painting.  Among 
the  emblems  borne  aloft  were  busts  of  Mirabeau, 
Rousseau,  Franklin,  and  Desilles  ;^  a  model  of  the  Bas- 

^  Desilles  was  the  young  offi-  Nancy  who  besought  his  fel- 
cer  in  a  mutinous  regiment  at     lows  not  to  fire  on  the  troops 


WORSHIP  OLD  AND  NEW  175 


tille;  a  shelf  of  Voltaire's  works  given  by  Beaumar- 
chais;  and  banners  with  clever  inscriptions  and  de- 
vices. Among  the  ranks  was  one  composed  of  Charles 
Villette  with  his  wife  and  little  daughter,  the  family 
of  Voltaire,  and  another  formed  by  the  Calas  sisters. 
The  catafalque  was  superb.  Above  the  sarcophagus 
was  a  canopy  on  which  reposed  a  half- reclining  figure 
of  the  philosopher,  over  whose  head  Immortality  held  a 
crown  of  stars ;  from  vases  at  each  corner  blazed  the 
flames  of  delicate  perfumes.  ''To  the  Manes  of  Vol- 
taire," ran  the  inscription  on  the  front;  that  opposite 
was :  *'He  defended  Calas,  Sirven,  La  Barre,  Mont- 
bailly"  ^ ;  on  one  of  the  two  sides,  ''He  fought  atheists 
and  fanatics,  he  reclaimed  the  rights  of  man  against 
slavery  and  feudalism" ;  on  the  other,  "Poet,  historian, 
philosopher,  he  enlarged  the  human  mind  and  taught 
that  it  should  be  free." 

A  pause  was  made  before  the  house  where  the  sage 
had  last  resided  on  the  quay  of  the  Theatins,  now  the 
quay  Voltaire.  There  the  catafalque  was  in  full  view 
of  the  Tuileries  windows.  Perhaps  the  royal  captives 
saw  what  occurred.  Mme.  Villette,  adoptive  daugh- 
ter of  Voltaire,  advanced  toward  the  car,  greeted  the 
statue,  and  dedicating  her  child  to  her  divinity,  "her 

of  Boiiille  which  had  been  sent  way.   Both  were  falsely  charged 

to  quell  the  insurrection.    Find-  with  the  murder  of  Montbailly's 

ing  his  plea  of  fraternity  in  aged  but  sottish  mother,  who 

vain,  he  threw  himself  in  front  appears    to    have    died    in  a 

of  the  guns  of  his  own  men,  drunken  stupor.    The  son  was 

and  fell  mortally  wounded.  The  executed,  after  mutilation.  The 

Assembly    in     1790    formally  daughter-in-law,  after  long  im- 

voted  that  he  had  deserved  well  prisonment,  escaped  death  by 

of  his  country,  and  his  man-  the    personal    intervention  of 

hood    was    widely    celebrated  Voltaire    with   the  chancellor 

both  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  who  reviewed  the  case  and,  all 

stage.  ^  too  late,  pronounced  both  the 

^  The  case'of  the  Montbaillys,  victims    innocent.     The  date 

husband  and  wife,  was  a  sim-  was  1770.    See  Voltaire,  Oeu- 

ple  miscarriage  of  justice. with-  vres  Completes  (cd.  Moland), 

out  reference  to  religion  in  any  XXVIII.  429  and  XXX.  577, 


176        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


papa  great  man,"  fell  in  a  rapture  amid  the  wild  din  of 
the  trumpets  playing  a  funeral  march  and  the  chanting 
of  the  choirs.  It  was  ten  at  night  when,  under  the  glare 
of  flickering  torches,  the  remains  were  solemnly  de- 
posited in  the  Pantheon,  to  remain  forever !  Less  than 
the  time  reckoned  as  a  generation  of  men  had  elapsed 
when  they  were  violently  torn  from  the  stately  tomb 
and  cast  with  quicklime  into  an  unmarked,  unhallowed, 
and  unknown  grave.  Yet  at  the  moment  Voltaire 
ruled  supreme  in  the  ''diocese  of  free  thought,"  a  cir- 
cumscription widening  with  every  hour.  Men  by  scores 
of  thousands  believed  that  at  last  theology  and  philos- 
ophy were  divorced;  they  saw  and  were  drawn  to  the 
adoration  of  human  grandeur  as  a  substitute  for  divine. 
Now,  as  then,  rationalists  mark  that  day  as  the  deifi- 
cation of  the  human  reason.  The  broad  highway  to 
blasphemy  and  scandal  was  thenceforth  opened  wide, 
and  thousands  thronged  to  enter  it. 


XI 

THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION 


XI 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION 

THE  monasteries  of  France  were  an  Ultramontane 
bulwark  quite  as  formidable  as  the  prelacy.  Yet 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  they  had  a  far 
stronger  resemblance  to  a  stolid,  passive  earthwork  than 
to  an  aggressive  fire-spitting  fortress.  The  first  at- 
tacks upon  these  bastions,  as  made  in  the  decree  of 
February  thirteenth,  1790,  only  rendered  them  the 
stronger,  by  reason  of  the  iron  which  entered  into 
their  mass,  as  it  were.  Under  the  old  monarchy  nei- 
ther monk  nor  nun  had  any  standing  before  the  law, 
except  as  the  law  enforced  the  vows  of  chastity,  pov- 
erty, and  obedience.  They  could  neither  marry,  in- 
herit, nor  make  testamentary  disposition  of  property; 
fugitives  could  be  returned  by  force  to  the  monasteries 
and  nunneries  from  which  they  had  escaped.  The 
Revolution  began,  as  we  have  elsewhere  noted,  by  dis- 
pensing with  the  validity  of  monastic  vows  and  for- 
bidding any  further  administration  of  such  oaths, 
under  penalty  of  suppressing  the  establishment  where 
they  were  taken.  Monks  and  nuns  could  leave  their 
monasteries  by  making  a  simple  declaration  of  their 
desire  before  the  nearest  municipal  authorities.  In 
that  case  they  would  receive  a  "suitable"  pension. 
Monks  who  desired  to  continue  their  secluded  life  were 
assigned  to  certain  establishments;  nuns  might  remain 
where  they  were  if  they  so  desired,    ^'Nothing  is  to  be 

179 


i8o        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


changed,"  ran  the  decree,  "in  respect  to  the  houses  con- 
cerned with  pubHc  education  or  with  regard  to  charit- 
able estabhshments  until  a  course  regarding  these  mat- 
ters has  been  decided  upon." 

The  existence  of  monasteries,  nunneries,  and  con- 
vents was  thereafter  neither  legal  nor  illegal,  but  their 
inmates  were  completely  emancipated  from  ''civil 
death."  Other  measures,  six  in  all,  were  taken  subse- 
quently, but  they  were  purely  administrative.  While 
considerable  numbers  of  the  ''regulars"  abandoned 
their  cells,  yet  the  majority  held  their  vows  to  be  bind- 
ing, continued  wearing  their  distinctive  garb,  and  re- 
mained in  the  exercise  of  their  monastic  functions,  not 
loosely  and  listlessly,  as  of  old,  but  with  zeal  and  en- 
ergy, because  they  had  now  a  moral  stimulus.  They 
appear  to  have  undergone  a  corresponding  spiritual 
reform,  to  have  cleansed  their  hearts  and  mended  their 
ways.    They  were,  of  course,  nonjurors. 

This  was  the  situation  until  after  the  king's  forced 
return  from  Varennes.  On  August  fourth  Legrand,  a 
deputy  further  unknown  to  fame,  reported  in  the  name 
of  the  Ecclesiastical  Committee  that  conditions  in  north- 
ern France  had  become  intolerable.  With  the  time- 
honored  plea  of  the  public  safety,  used  in  all  its  usurpa- 
tions by  the  old  monarchy,  he  proposed  that  all  active 
members  of  religious  orders  should  immediately  pre- 
sent themselves  at  Paris  for  assignment  to  safe  quar- 
ters; that  all  the  rest,  together  with  the  nonjuring 
parish  priests,  be  banished  to  a  distance  of  thirty 
leagues,  about  eighty-five  miles,  from  the  frontiers  of 
their  departments.  The  proposition  was  not  enthusi- 
astically received  by  the  Constituent,  which  was  really 
aghast  at  the  consequences  of  its  own  course,  and  afraid 
of  such  wholesale  proscription ;  after  much  bitter  talk  the 
report  was  relegated  to  the  obscurity  of  the  committee- 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  i8i 


rooms. ^  It  was  therefore  in  connection  with  ecclesi- 
astical affairs  that  the  terrible  theory  of  ''public  safety" 
dear  to  the  old  monarchy  again  lifted  its  direful  head. 
It  was  on  the  plea  of  the  ''public  safety"  that  severe 
penalties  were  almost  at  once  enacted  against  all 
Frenchmen  who  should  endeavor  to  leave  France,  even 
the  king.  Thus  far  the  emigrants,  successful  or  un- 
successful, were  in  the  main  prelates,  aristocrats,  and 
members  of  the  royal  family. 

Meantime  political  affairs,  both  internal  and  exter- 
nal, were  growing  more  and  more  entangled.  On 
July  sixteenth  a  company  of  "patriots,"  including  Dan- 
ton  and  Camille  Desmoulins,  who  desired  to  memorial- 
ize the  legislature  in  a  monster  petition  for  the  king's 
demission,  unwittingly  involved  themselves  in  a  riot  on 
the  Champ  de  Mars.  The  royalists  on  that  day  mas- 
sacred hundreds  of  innocent  persons,  and  the  republi- 
cans bore  all  the  blame.  The  moderate  royalists  grew 
stronger  and  stronger  during  the  summer,  and  when, 
on  October  sixth,  Louis  presented  himself  before  the 
legislature  he  was  received  with  wild  enthusiasm.  His 
smooth  speech  and  brazen  forehead  had  a  soothing- 
effect  throughout  France,  and  except  for  the  religious 
chaos  there  was  a  marked  improvement  in  the  relations 
of  the  crown  and  the  legislature.  On  the  thirty-first  the 
Comte  de  Provence  was  formally  summoned  to  reenter 
France  under  penalty  of  losing  his  hereditary  rights. 
On  November  ninth  Frenchmen  foregathering  and  col- 
loguing in  foreign  lands  were  declared  to  have  placed 
themselves  under  suspicion  of  treason,  and  were  threat- 
ened with  loss  of  all  rights  if  they  did  not  return  home 
before  January  first,  1792.  The  king  dared  to  veto 
this  enactment,  but  summoned  his  brothers  to  return. 
They  mockingly  refused. 

^  Moniteur,  August  fourth,  1791. 


1 82        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


The  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe  now  stood  aghast. 
During  the  earHer  years  of  the  Revolution  they  were 
like  crows  about  carrion;  but  now  the  carcass  of  Po- 
land was  nearly  dismembered,  and  further  aggression 
upon  the  Orient  was  postponed.  As  far  as  the  French 
nation  knew,  the  political  reforms  inaugurated  by  them 
had  aroused  elsewhere  a  curiosity  which  was  in  the 
main  sympathetic  and  in  some  instances  enthusiastic. 
But  the  plainest  Frenchman  understood  that  from  the 
moment  of  Louis's  arrest  kings  and  royal  chancelleries 
were  furious  at  the  duress  put  upon  him.  The  influ- 
ence known  later  as  the  Girondist,  but  still  styled  Jaco- 
bin, was  now  paramount  in  the  Legislative,  and  was 
steadily  growing  in  France.^  These  men  and  their 
friends  were  outraged  by  the  reception  of  the  emi- 
grants at  foreign  courts  and  the  success  of  emigrant 
efforts  in  forming  an  armed  resistance  to  France  by  the 
connivance  of  rulers  in  neighboring  countries.  The 
German-Roman  empire,  of  which  Austria  was  the 
head,  was  furious  at  the  assaults  made  by  France  on 
the  feudal  rights  of  German  princes  in  Alsace,  de- 
manded the  suppression  of  Jacobinism  at  Paris,  and  ex- 
acted the  emancipation  of  the  king.  Royalists  and 
''patriots"  throughout  France  were  alike  eager  for  war, 
the  former  to  liberate  Louis,  the  latter  to  extend  the 
Revolution,  to  array  peoples  against  their  absolute 
rulers,  and  "municipalize"  Europe.  Robespierre  and 
his  followers  alone  dreaded  the  conflict.    The  Giron- 

^  At  the  outset  there  was  no  that  of  Paris.   They  came  from 

essential  difference  between  the  nearly  every  district  of  France, 

factions    of    the    "Mountain,"  not  especially  from  the  south, 

and  when  the  split  actually  oc-  as  has  so  long  been  taught, 

curred  it  had  nothing  to  do  See  Aulard,   La   Societe  des 

with     religion,     nor,     strictly  Jacobins,  V.  533,  for  the  volun- 

speaking,  with  politics.    Those  tary  identification  of  the  Jaco- 

who  were  finally  styled  Giron-  bins,  by  themselves,  with  the 

dins  desired  a  preponderance  "Septembriseurs." 
of   provincial    influence  over 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  183 


dist  ministry  was  formed,  demanded  either  war  or  a 
stable  peace,  and  summoned  Austria  to  desist  from  her 
courses.    She  retorted  by  a  disdainful  refusal. 

What  no  Frenchman  then  knew,  but  what  both  Robes- 
pierre and  Marat  suspected  and  shrewdly  followed, 
was  the  tortuous  course  of  Louis.  On  December  third, 
1 79 1, "the  king  of  the  French,  the  Constitutional  king," 
swearing  again  and  again  to  support  the  new  constitu- 
tion, civil  and  ecclesiastical,  secretly  suggested  to  Fred- 
erick William  of  Prussia  a  European  congress,  backed 
by  armaments,  to  intervene  in  French  affairs.  Austria 
and  Prussia  drew  together  to  protect  absolutist  and 
feudal  Europe;  and  Russia,  hoping  for  a  free  hand  in 
Poland,  encouraged  them.  Louis  sent  a  secret  agent 
to  \^ienna  disavowing  all  the  procedures  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  went  in  person  to  the  hall  of  the  Legislative 
to  propose  war.  Of  all  black  crimes  known  to  history, 
none  could  be  blacker.  With  a  headlong  folly  which 
was  nothing  short  of  criminal,  the  formal  declaration 
of  hostilities  was  made  by  that  fatuous  Assembly. 

The  first  French  column  which  took  the  field  fled 
in  panic  before  the  Austrians,  but,  being  themselves  un- 
prepared for  war,  the  victors  did  not  follow  up  their 
advantage,  and  the  French  court,  during  an  interval  of 
two  months  in  the  active  operations  on  the  field,  put 
forth  in  secret  herculean  efforts  to  stimulate  the  in- 
vaders of  France  and  inaugurate  the  counter-revolution 
on  the  ruins  of  French  defeats.  Finally  an  inkling  was 
given  of  the  truth,  and  suspicions  began  to  dawn  in  the 
minds  of  the  deputies,  who  then,  and  right  quickly, 
grew  furious  and  so  were  ready  in  their  cowardly  panic 
for  any  excesses.  They  took  the  hint  from  a  strange 
boldness  displayed  by  Louis  in  repeated  refusals  to 
sanction  decrees  enforcing  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the 
Clerg}%    For  such  a  prince  to  defy  such  a  legislature 


1 84       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


at  such  a  moment  in  such  a  matter  was  indeed  por- 
tentous. 

The  strides  toward  reHgious  anarchy  made  by 
France  within  the  two  short  years  from  1791  to  1793 
can  be  understood  only  by  two  considerations :  that  of 
discord  and  schism  in  the  church,  that  of  temporary 
concord  and  union  among  the  radical  Rousseauists. 
The  solemnities  of  Christianity  had  steadily  lost  their 
meaning,  while  those  of  the  fatherland  cult  were  con- 
tinuously arrogating  a  religious  and  binding  character 
to  themselves.  To  a  people  rendered  incapable  of  dis- 
tinguishing religious  from  secular,  public  from  private 
duties,  the  secular  and  public  obligations  they  felt  so 
strongly  were  easily  erected  into  a  system  of  worship 
excluding  the  other.  It  was  not  a  very  long  step  to 
the  festival  of  Reason. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Pope  had  now  announced 
himself  as  rigid  in  his  position,  for  he  had  refused  to 
receive  a  successor  to  the  Cardinal  de  Bernis  on  the 
ground  that  a  representative  of  the  Revolution  would 
be  an  apostle  of  anarchy.  His  followers  therefore 
went  on  with  their  resistance,  and  in  consequence  the 
leader  of  the  Avignon  "patriots"  was  killed.  Hun- 
dreds of  the  faithful  were  massacred  in  brutal  retalia- 
tion; the  murders  were  committed  within  the  ancient 
palace  of  the  popes  on  October  sixteenth,  and,  on  the 
plea  that  Avignon  was  not  a  part  of  France  until  No- 
vember eighth,  the  murderers  were  in  March  of  the 
following  year  ( 1 792)  virtually  amnestied  by  the  Legis- 
lative. Louis  was  appalled,  but,  expecting  speedy  re- 
lief, he  stood  firm.  The  situation  was  terribly  strained, 
and  only  a  single  noble  voice,  that  of  Andre  Chenier, 
the  poet,  was  lifted  with  fervor  to  demand  that  the 
quarrels  of  priests  should  thereafter  be  let  alone  and 
so  ended.    But  the  Legislative  did  not  hearken,  and 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  185 


continued  amid  the  din  of  arms  to  occupy  itself  with 
ecclesiastical  riots,  to  the  exclusion  of  its  regular  busi- 
ness. Before  the  end  of  its  first  quarter,  on  November 
twenty-ninth,  at  the  instigation  of  one  of  its  fiery  and 
unreasonable  members,  Isnard,  it  flatly  took  the  utterly 
untenable  position  that  there  could  no  longer  be  toler- 
ation for  nonconformists ;  that  though  nonjuror  lay- 
men might  continue  to  worship  in  private  places,  all 
nonjuring  priests  should  be  deprived  of  their  pension 
and  considered  "suspect  of  sedition  and  revolt." 

This  was  the  real  turning-point  of  religious  affairs. 
The  king  boldly  vetoed  the  decree  on  December  nine- 
teenth, and  the  veto,  widely  discussed  as  a  piece  of 
royal  effrontery,  was  in  general  ignored.  The  famous 
Constitution  of  1791  was  thus  assassinated  in  the  house 
of  its  so-called  friends.  No  measure  w  as  a  law  unless 
with  the  royal  assent.  By  the  royal  veto  every  mea- 
sure of  the  legislature  was  invalidated.  This  decree 
therefore  was  constitutionally  null  and  void.  Yet  pop- 
ularly it  had,  and  continued  to  have,  great  force.  Per- 
secution was,  if  not  legalized,  at  least  no  longer  with- 
out a  partial  sanction.  Riot  and  bloodshed  grew  more 
and  more  frequent.  Serious  efforts  were  made  at  re- 
pression by  criminal  prosecution,  and  the  Assembly  ap- 
plauded a  suggestion  to  enforce  the  constitution  with 
the  least  possible  reference  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
Clergy.  But  in  vain.  Reason  asserted  itself  in  a  few 
quarters  by  a  steadily  growing  conviction  that  under 
the  existing  ecclesiastical  charter,  with  a  paid  clergy, 
religious  liberty  was  impossible.  But  reason  was  no 
longer  a  guide  for  the  fanatical  radicals  now  ascen- 
dant in  the  legislature;  disdainful  of  common  sense, 
they  determined  to  meet  the  fanatical  priests  with  fur- 
ther severity. 

The  debates  on  the  decrees  of  November  and  May 


i86       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


exhibit  how  the  radical  determination  to  ''decathoH- 
cize"  France  became  pivotal  to  the  subsequent  secular 
policy  of  the  Revolution.  Isnard,  though  a  deputy  from 
Provence,  the  hotbed  of  extreme  radicalism,  was  him- 
self a  Girondist.  He  argued  that  seditious  priests  were 
the  worst  possible  rebels  because  of  their  numerous  fol- 
lowers and  consequent  influence.  From  this  they 
should  be  removed  by  deportation  and  punished,  like 
other  criminals,  with  rigor  and  justice.  The  infliction 
of  fitting  penalties  was  in  no  sense  martyrdom,  for 
martyrs  die  for  conscience  sake,  not  for  offences  against 
public  order,  a  class  of  purely  secular  transgressions 
which  honest  men  can  easily  avoid.  Not  priests  alone, 
but  all  Frenchmen  should  be  forced  to  take  the  civic 
oath,  for  such  a  measure  is  the  sole  preventive  of  an- 
archy. "I  would  punish  alike  all  fanatics,  all  agitators ; 
such  is  my  creed ;  the  law  is  my  God ;  I  have  no  other. 
I  am  interested  in  and  inspired  by  the  public  welfare, 
and  by  that  alone."  ^  This,  although  it  was  retracted 
later  by  the  speaker,  is  the  whole  matter  in  a  nutshell. 
No  obligations  of  truth  or  justice  in  view  of  the  public 
safety,  and  of  this  the  legislature  is  the  sole  judge! 
Frangois  de  Nantes  furnished  the  corollary  in  asserting 
that  all  ecclesiastical  agitators  were  mere  hypocrites, 
prompted  in  reality  by  political  motives,  by  unswerv- 
ing hatred  of  the  constitution.^  On  the  other  hand, 
there  were  numerous  protests  from  the  departments, 
and  one,  most  notable,  from  the  Paris  Directory,  a  paper 


^  Moniteur,  November  four- 
teenth, 1791.  This  is  the  same 
who,  two  years  later,  when 
president  of  the  Convention, 
hurled  at  the  Paris  commune 
the  famous  threat:  "If  it 
should  happen  by  means  of 
these  recurring  riots  that  the 
national  representation  should 


be  endangered,  I  declare  to  you 
in  the  name  of  all  France  that 
soon  men  will  be  searching  on 
the  banks  of  the  Seine  to  dis- 
cover whether  Paris  ever  ex- 
isted." See  Aulard,  Histoire 
Politique,  etc.,  p.  435. 

^Jervis,  The  Gallican  Church 
and  the  Revolution,  p.  193. 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  187 


which  was  probably  the  work  of  Talleyrand.  It  was 
a  plea  for  liberty  of  worship  and  a  remonstrance 
against  intolerance.  Such,  however,  was  the  general 
contempt  of  the  king's  veto  that  by  February,  1792, 
the  state  of  the  entire  country  was  deplorable.  The 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  Cahier-Gerville,  was  ordered 
to  report  on  it.  This  he  did  by  frankly  acknowledging 
the  facts ;  as  the  only  possible  remedy,  he  appealed  for 
obedience  to  the  constitution,  including  the  Civil  Con- 
stitution of  the  Clergy.  The  report  was  a  confession 
of  helplessness,  and  De  Moy's  plea  for  utter  disestab- 
lishment, with  a  complete  voluntary  system,  which  was 
speedily  published,  merely  exasperated  further  the  ex- 
tremists of  both  sides,  who  desired  no  reconciliation.^ 

On  ]\Iarch  nineteenth  the  Pope  issued  two  briefs,  one 
refuting  the  Constitutional  statement  of  principles,  the 
other  continuing  the  powers  of  the  nonjuring  bishops, 
and  thus  perpetuating  the  orthodox  church.  In  May  a 
special  committee  of  twelve  on  the  state  of  the  nation 
reported.  Pointing  out  that  since  all  the  nonjurors 
were  acting  in  harmony  there  must  be  a  conspiracy, 
that  not  one  of  the  conspirators  had  been  brought  to 
justice,  and  that  therefore  in  the  present  state  of  af- 
fairs there  was  only  one  possible  remedy,  its  conclusion 
was  that  all  the  disaffected  priests  must  be  banished. 

This  was  the  signal  for  an  exhibition  of  the  temper 
which  now  controlled  the  Constitutionals.  With  brazen 
effrontery  they  asserted  through  their  mouthpiece,  a 
Constitutional  bishop,  Ichon  by  name,  that  the  non- 
jurors were  merely  traitors,  a  permanent  Austrian  com- 
mittee, denouncing  by  secret  propaganda  all  Constitu- 
tional principles,  and  that,  everywhere  throughout 
France.  The  charge  was  coincident  with  the  panic 
over  the  Austrian  successes  in  arms,  and  the  decree  of 
*  See  above,  p.  162. 


i88        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  twenty-seventh,  rushed  through  with  headlong 
speed,  provided  for  the  banishment  of  any  and  all  non- 
conformists. Next  day,  in  a  state  of  utter  distraction 
over  the  defeat,  treachery,  and  cowardice  of  the  troops, 
the  Legislative  declared  the  country  in  danger  and 
itself  the  permanent  authority.  The  king's  guard  was 
then  disbanded  and  a  revolutionary  army  was  ordained. 
It  seemed  a  preternatural  and  suspicious  boldness  that 
the  king  should  dare  to  veto  this  decree  of  the  twenty- 
seventh.  His  truest  friends  begged  him  to  yield,  but 
he  stood  defiant  as  a  rock. 

Of  all  the  interesting  and  instructive  comparisons  or 
contrasts  which  could  be  made  between  the  respective 
courses  of  the  English  and  French  revolutions,  sepa- 
rated as  they  were  by  a  century,  none  is  more  instruc- 
tive or  more  interesting  than  the  differing  fates  of  two 
monarchs,  both  of  whom  relied  on  foreign  aid  for  sup- 
port ecclesiastically  and  institutionally.  The  English 
nonjurors  wanted  James  to  remain,  the  Whigs  desired 
nothing  so  much  as  his  flight;  the  French  Ultramon- 
tanes  were  eager  for  Louis's  escape,  the  fiery  radicals 
were  determined  either  to  bend  the  monarchy  or  break 
the  monarch.  Both  English  and  French  conservatives 
labored  for  anarchy  in  the  belief  that  finally  old  condi- 
tions would  be  restored.  "Box  it  about,  it  will  come 
to  my  father"  was  the  Jacobite  password  to  a  chaos 
from  which  must  reemerge  the  absolutism  of  James; 
that  of  the  French  Ultramontanes,  though  identical, 
was  scarcely  a  secret,  and  therefore  required  no  form 
of  thieves'  patter  to  conceal  it.  In  the  end  the  refrac- 
tories of  both  nations  got  the  same  lessons :  there  can 
be  no  religious  liberty  without  free  discussion,  and 
there  can  be  no  free  discussion  in  a  volatile,  disorgan- 
ized, and  distracted  body  of  representatives,  whether 
it  be  called  a  free  parliament  or  a  Constitutional  legis- 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  189 


lative;  there  can  be  no  civil  liberty  without  perfect  reli- 
gious freedom,  and  this  last  is  utterly  inconsistent  with 
an  Erastian  establishn  ent. 

A  careful  student  of  the  English  Revolution  might 
almost  have  foretold  the  successive  stages  of  the 
French  Revolution.  But  there  was  not  one.  The 
French  believed  they  were  working  out  a  new  problem 
in  a  French  way,  and  with  few  exceptions  disdained 
the  lessons  of  English  history.  Though  engaged  in 
a  work  as  beneficent  as  that  done  in  the  British  Isles  at 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  they  avoided  no 
shallow,  no  reef,  no  whirlpool  in  their  course  by  means 
of  their  neighbor's  experience.  English  opinion  dis- 
dained them  for  their  indifference,  and  represented 
their  revolution  as  a  series  of  cataclysms,  a  judgment 
which  has  too  long  imposed  on  credulous  readers.  In 
fact,  the  climax  of  the  French  transition,  as  we  have 
reached  it,  was  almost  identical  with  that  of  the  Eng- 
lish; and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Grand  Alli- 
ance of  William  III.,  being  mainly  continental,  pre- 
vented such  direct  interference  of  strangers  in  the  Eng- 
lish Revolution  as  that  which  violated  French  soil  and 
roused  the  French  to  unreasoning  passion.  The  riots 
which  began  in  London  a  century  earlier  were  quite  as 
menacing  as  the  earliest  disorders  in  Paris ;  they  were 
checked  by  the  approach  of  a  wise  man,  a  prince  of 
Stuart  blood,  whose  trivial  military  feats  on  English 
soil  merely  put  Irish  papists,  hated  foreigners,  beyond 
the  power  of  evil  doing. 

The  temptation  to  recount  other  analogies  and  con- 
trasts well-nigh  innumerable  is  almost  irresistible,  but 
perhaps  a  single  one  may  suffice  to  fix  a  landmark  of 
human  experience.  Had  not  the  acquittal  of  the  bish- 
ops clearly  foreshadowed  religious  liberty,  there  would 
have  been  in  England  a  cataclysm  quite  equal  to  that 


190       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


which  was  thought  to  have  occurred  in  France  when 
the  Legislative,  in  the  name  of  civil  liberty,  destroyed 
all  hope  of  religious  liberty  as  it  did  by  the  steps  it 
took  throughout  the  close  of  1791  and  the  whole  of 
1792  to  repress  a  social  disorder  which  was  purely 
religious. 

Necessarily  matters  in  France  took  exactly  the  turn 
Avhich  human  passion,  whether  in  England  or  else- 
where, would  have  forced  them  to  take  under  identical 
conditions.  The  evolution  in  France  was  swift  and 
terrible,  but  it  was  a  natural  historic  evolution  for  all 
that.  It  appeared  like  a  cataclysm,  but  it  was  a  his- 
toric process.  The  riots  of  June  twentieth  and  the 
awful  day  of  August  tenth  were  both  parts  of  the  fierce 
lawlessness  engendered  throughout  France  by  the  on- 
set of  the  Legislative  and  the  resistance  of  the  king. 
The  first  was  an  awful  menace  to  Louis  by  the  riotous 
populace;  the  storming  of  his  palace,  with  the  aid  of 
the  terrible  federates  or  Marseillais,  was  the  fulfilment 
of  the  threat;  the  conclusion  was  his  deposition  from 
an  office  he  ought  to  have  abdicated  long  before  of  his 
own  accord.  The  subsequent  massacres  of  September 
second,  wherein,  according  to  the  most  careful  esti- 
mates, about  three  hundred  nonjuring  priests  foully 
perished,  were,  though  virtually  legal,  yet  in  reality  the 
foulest  assassinations  of  revolutionary  madness.^ 

This  marked  the  final  and  complete  rupture  between 
the  remnant  of  disordered  government  struggling  on 
at  Paris  and  the  nonjuring  Catholics;  and  although  the 
shameful  deed  took  place  after  the  deposition  of  the 
king,  as  if  in  consequence  of  it,  yet  in  reality  it  was 
the  sequence  of  events  antecedent.  The  king  and  royal 
family  were  imprisoned  in  the  Temple  on  August  thir- 

^  See  Barriiel,  Histoire  du  Clerge,  p.  593,  for  the  list 
of  the  killed. 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  191 


teenth.  The  work  of  sacking  the  Tuileries,  initiated 
by  an  insurrection,  was  recognized  as  regular  and  legal 
by  the  Legislative,  and  the  dregs  of  Paris  society  now 
wielded  the  sceptre.  It  was  felt  by  the  masses  that 
P'rance  could  not  now  be  betrayed  by  her  king,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  was  the  certainty  that  all  Europe 
would  immediately  join  Austria  to  compel  the  Jacobin 
mob  of  Paris  to  abdicate. 

The  Legislative,  however,  was  committed  to  Jacobin 
support.  An  awful  war  was  inevitable,  men  and  re- 
sources must  be  found  without  a  moment's  delay. 
There  still  remained  to  the  nation  a  quick  asset  in  the 
property  of  the  monasteries.  Monks  and  nuns  alike 
had  swollen  the  ranks  of  the  refractory  nonjurors,  but 
they  alone  of  the  ecclesiastics  had  retained  their  pos- 
sessions. On  August  seventeenth  the  legislature  de- 
creed urgency,  shut  the  convents,  and  put  an  end  to 
monastic  life.  Next  day  it  suppressed  all  religious 
orders,  even  those  devoted  exclusively  to  nursing,  char- 
ity, and  education.  Further,  and  this  was  a  measure 
of  vital  importance  in  the  public  mind,  it  forbade  as  a 
criminal  offence  the  wearing  of  all  and  any  monastic 
costumes  whatsoever.  Finally,  all  the  estates  of  the 
monasteries  were  to  be  sold  as  national  property. 
Women  were  to  receive  a  small  pension  without  condi- 
tions, but  the  same  restrictions — to  wit,  the  taking  of 
the  civic  oath — were  put  upon  the  regular  priests  as  on 
the  secular.  These  measures  were  coincident  with  the 
invasion  of  French  soil  and  the  investment  of  Verdun 
by  foreigners — Prussians  under  French  guidance.  No 
extreme  of  retaliation  or  of  injustice  was  too  violent,  if 
advocated  in  the  name  of  public  safety. 

This  was  the  spirit  which  led  Marat  to  call  for 
vengeance  on  the  traitors  in  French  prisons  before  ad- 
vancing to  repel  the  invaders  and  French  traitors  at  the 


192       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


front.  The  holocaust  of  mob  vengeance  was  declared 
a  purge;  it  was  a  purge  in  the  main  of  ecclesiastics, 
ruthlessly  administered  by  those  who  now  abhorred 
Christianity  in  any  form.  The  Legislative  feebly  dis- 
claimed the  responsibility  and  virtually  abdicated.  To 
Danton  and  a  dictatorial  committee  was  entrusted  the 
national  defence.  Though  the  September  massacres 
were  hateful  to  Danton,  yet  nobody  was  punished.^ 
His  energies  were  successfully  directed  to  organizing 
an  army,  and  though  the  battle  of  Valmy,  on  Septem- 
ber twentieth,  was  a  small  affair,  yet  after  it  the  Prus- 
sians retreated,  and  such  was  the  moral  effect  that 
Goethe  but  formulated  European  opinion  that  revolu- 
tionary France  could  and  would  resist  all  interference 
by  her  neighbors  when  he  declared  that  a  new  era 
opened  on  that  day.  The  Legislative  Assembly  almost 
at  the  same  hour  which  saw  the  Prussians  retreat  com- 
pleted its  work  of  ecclesiastical  legislation  by  taking 
from  the  parochial  authorities  the  registration  of  births, 
marriages,  and  deaths.  Vital  statistics  have  since  been 
kept  by  the  local  secular  authorities.    This  was  consid- 


^  The  process  whereby  the 
radicals  of  Paris  extinguished 
the  influence  of  the  provincial 
radicals  in  the  legislature  was 
gradual.  The  Jacobins  of  Paris 
were  ostensibly  royalist  until 
1/93,  and  shrewdly  cast  the 
odium  of  the  king's  execution 
upon  the  Girondists.  It  was  not 
until  they  expelled  Philippe- 
Egalite  from  their  club  and 
turned  the  tables  by  proscribing 
both  him  and  the  Girondists 
that  they  were  recognized  as 
republicans.  To  justify  this  at- 
titude they  chose  to  connect 
the  events  of  August  tenth  and 
September  second  as  insepara- 
ble because  of  the  volunteer 
movement  for  national  defence 


coincident  with  the  massacres. 
One  was  splendid,  the  other 
excusable.  The  events  of  Au- 
gust were  a  blow  for  father- 
land and  liberty,  those  of  Sep- 
tember assured  their  victory. 
Thus,  although  the  massacres 
were  the  work  of  a  wild  and 
maddened  populace,  the  radi- 
cals assumed  responsibility  for 
them.  When  Danton,  on  March 
tenth,  1793,  described  the  days 
of  September  as  a  bloody  out- 
rage he  fixed  the  stigma  for  all 
future  time  on  the  Jacobins. 
Eventually  the  Girondists  prof- 
ited by  their  momentary  ob- 
scuration. See  Aulard,  La  So- 
ciete  des  Jacobins,  V.  533,  and 
Histoire  Politique,  p.  416. 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  193 


ered  to  complete  the  emancipation  of  the  state  from 
church  control. 

The  National  Convention  was  a  very  different  body 
from  its  two  predecessors.  Elected  under  the  consti- 
tution of  1 79 1  as  an  ''assembly  of  revision,"  it  marked 
the  downfall  of  all  burgher  privilege,  the  sovereign 
control  of  affairs  by  democratic-republican  opinion. 
Abolishing  monarchy  and  executing  the  king,  it  was 
concerned  primarily  with  the  defence  of  the  country  and 
further  purging  the  state  of  all  traitors  at  home.  These 
ends  it  sought  to  gain  by  revolutionary  means,  and  at 
the  earliest  moment  after  appointing  revolutionary 
tribunals  and  executive  committees  it  proceeded  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  complete  separation  between 
church  and  state — what  is  called  the  ''laicization"  of 
France.  In  this  ruthless  process  it  was  not  content  to 
deal  with  nonjurors,  but,  openly  irreligious,  it  began 
to  attack  all  worship,  including  that  of  the  Constitu- 
tionals themselves. 

It  was  decreed  that  thenceforth  all  public  servants, 
ecclesiastic  and  secular,  should  swear  the  purely  secu- 
lar and  political  oath — *'to  maintain  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power  liberty  and  equality  or  to  die  at  their  post." 
Many  of  the  surviving  hierarchy  gladly  complied,  for 
they  felt  this  to  be  a  complete  relief  from  the  heretical 
declarations  required  under  the  Civil  Constitution; 
others  declared  that  since  the  law  emanated  from  a 
Godless  body  so  perjured  and  unhallowed  as  the 
regicide  Convention,  it  must  be  of  the  devil  and 
an  impossible  burden  to  be  laid  on  Christian  con- 
science. The  leader  of  the  former  group  was  a  wise, 
strong  man.  Abbe  £mery,  who  stuck  to  his  post; 
the  other  camp  followed  the  violent  Abbe  Maury, 
now  safe  in  Rome;  like  their  leader,  they  emigrated. 
For  the  rnost  part  these  men,  literally  by  thousands, 


194       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


sought  refuge  in  England  as  martyrs  for  conscience 
sake. 

Pius  VI.  was  himself  careful  not  to  pronounce  on 
the  character  of  the  oath,  finally  explaining,  in  July, 
1794,  that  since  the  Holy  See  had  not  declared  itself, 
those  concerned  should  examine  their  consciences  in 
regard  to  swearing,  and  that  no  one  who  had  already 
sworn  was  bound  to  retract.  This  inexcusable  inde- 
cision, combined  with  the  shocking  conduct  of  the  Con- 
vention, completed  the  schism  w^hich  shivered  the  eccle- 
siastical fabric;  there  were  those  who  had  taken  both 
oaths  and  those  who  had  taken  neither,  while  some  had 
sworn  to  one  and  not  to  the  other.  In  its  mad  rage 
the  Convention  drew  no  distinctions,  and  proscribed 
men  from  each  of  the  four  classes ;  even  the  Abbe 
fimery  w^as  haled  before  the  Bloody  Tribunal,  and 
barely  escaped  with  his  life.  For  seventeen  long 
months  he  was  the  ghostly  comforter  of  the  sorry  and 
wretched  company  behind  the  bars  of  the  Conciergerie, 
and  gave  the  final  consolations  of  religion  to  scores 
among  the  terror-stricken  groups  of  men  and  women 
who  daily  passed  its  doors  to  be  murdered  by  the  guil- 
lotine. Meanwhile  the  Convention  was  revelling  in 
atrocity. 

By  the  decree  of  April  twenty-fourth,  1793,  all  eccle- 
siastics, seculars,  regulars,  brothers  lay  and  menial, 
who  had  not  taken  the  oath,  were  banished  to  French 
Guiana.  Leaving  the  Constitutionals  for  a  short  time, 
but  most  grudgingly,  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  legal 
status,  it  authorized  the  marriage  of  any  who  so  de- 
sired without  disturbance  of  their  office.  Many  con- 
tracted matrimony.  They  were  protected  against  arro- 
gance by  three  statutes,  passed  respectively  in  July, 
August,  and  September.  The  feeling  against  a  priestly 
caste  was  steadily  growing  stronger,  and  there  were 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  19S 


symptoms  of  a  desire  to  abolish  Catholicism  utterly  in 
all  its  forms.  Even  a  Constitutional,  it  was  enacted  in 
October,  if  not  married  could  be  denounced  for  "in- 
civism''  like  the  nonjurors.  The  guilty  were  banished 
to  the  African  coast  between  the  twenty-third  and 
twenty-eighth  degrees  of  latitude.  From  September 
onward  there  were  lay  burials ;  local  festivals  were 
given  a  distinctly  heathen  character  ;  many  churches 
and  sacred  vessels  were  desecrated,  and  one  church 
building  at  least  was  transformed  into  a  ''Temple  of 
Truth."  ^  The  course  of  the  sovereign  assembly  was 
correspondingly  a  swift  descent  to  hell,  in  which  every 
type  of  extreme  fanatic  heathen  took  his  turn  at  the 
helm  and  was  swept  into  perdition  to  make  room  for 
another,  until  the  engulfing  maelstrom  was  reached  and 
the  faint-hearted,  shallow  Robespierre  sounded  the 
alarm. 

The  pleas  for  the  Convention  so  constantly  reiterated 
are  all  alike  pitiful — all  except  one :  it  was  the  in- 
carnation of  energy.  While  it  was  revelling  in  polit- 
ical and  religious  massacre,  it  was  forsooth  talking 
philanthropy;  while  it  was  gorging  itself  on  the  dis- 


^  It  is  important  to  note  the 
receding  pulsations  of  conser- 
vatism which  were  intercalated 
with  the  stages  of  rising  irreli- 
gion.  On  November  thirteenth, 
1792,  Cambon  proposed  to  abol- 
ish the  support  of  public 
worship  and  reduce  secular  tax- 
ation by  the  twenty  million  dol- 
lars thus  to  be  saved.  Robes- 
pierre flouted  the  idea  as  an 
attack  on  public  morals,  and 
there  were  threats  of  rioting. 
Danton  secured  a  vote  to  the 
effect  that  the  Convention  had 
never  seriously  considered  such 
a  course,  and  this  was  em- 
bodied in  another  resolution  of 


January  eleventh.  1793.  -"^  ^<^w 
days  later  the  legates  of  the 
Convention  declared  in  a  proc- 
lamation to  the  Vendeans  that 
the  republic  was  founded  on 
the  moral  system  of  the  gospel. 
On  May  thirtieth  the  Fete- 
Dieu  was  publicly  celebrated 
in  Paris  without  disorder,  and 
in  June  it  was  decreed  that  the 
salaries  of  the  ecclesiastics 
were  a  part  of  the  public  obli- 
gations. But  these  acts  made 
no  impression.  Public  atten- 
tion was  fixed  on  the  ruthless 
treatment  meted  out  to  the  re- 
fractories by  the  Convention. 


196       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


membered  limbs  of  the  social  organism,  it  was  dis- 
cussing elementary  schools;  while  it  claimed  to  repre- 
sent the  noble  principles  of  1789,  it  violated  each  and 
all  of  them,  covering  every  crime  by  the  Jesuitical  plea 
of  the  "public  safety."  The  Jacobins  were  madmen, 
the  Girondists  were  temporizers,  and  fury  conquered. 
The  growing  tide  of  desperation  showed  itself  clearly 
within  the  walls  of  the  riding-school  where  the  Con- 
vention sat,  in  the  treatment  of  its  own  members,  the 
seventeen  Constitutional  bishops  and  twenty-two  priests 
who  sat  as  deputies.  These  all,  with  one  exception, 
were  so  overawed  by  the  relentless  bloodshed  in  the 
French  cities,  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  unparalleled 
deeds  of  courage  shown  by  the  French  armies,  on  the 
other,  that  they  were  stunned.  Both  these  extraordi- 
nary phenomena  were  considered  by  the  people  to  be 
the  work  of  the  same  men.  They  appeared  to  be  in- 
spired and  stimulated  by  Robespierre,  Danton,  Billaud- 
Varenne,  Collot-d'Herbois,  Couthon,  Marat,  Lindet, 
and  their  ubiquitous  proconsuls  at  home  and  abroad. 
So  profound  was  this  conviction  and  so  widespread, 
that  the  Constitutionals  were  fain  to  accept  it  as  a  truth. 

It  was  this  disastrous  confusion  of  ideas  which  for 
a  moment  gave  an  otherwise  incomprehensible  and  irre- 
sistible renown  to  the  clever  scoundrels.^    Foolish  men 


^  On  July  twenty-second,  1793, 
the  Convention  ordered  that  all 
church  bells  should  be  cast  into 
cannon,  leaving  only  one  for 
use  in  each  parish.  The  surplus 
church  plate  had  already  been 
coined ;  the  use  of  churches  for 
secular  meetings  was  common ; 
in  consequence,  churches  and 
church  services  had  suffered  in 
the  public  esteem.  By  October, 
1793,  the  representatives  of  the 
Convention  at  Abbeville  and 
Nevers  began  to  stigmatize  all 


priests,  discarding  altogether 
the  distinction  between  good 
and  bad  priests  so  long  held, 
as  harlequins  and  puppets,  and 
all  services  as  superstitious 
and  hypocritical.  Over  the 
lich-gates  of  cemeteries  Fouche 
inscribed:  "Death  is  eternal 
sleep."  The  church  at  Roche- 
fort  was  transformed  into  a 
Temple  of  Truth ;  eight  priests 
and  a  Protestant  minister  un- 
frocked themselves.  The  festi- 
val of  August  tenth  in  the 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  197 


holding  important  positions  made  a  mad  dash  to  imi- 
tate the  all-powerful  leaders.  On  November  seventh, 
1793,  a  cure  named  Parens  began  the  downward  rush, 
renouncing  Christianity  in  a  letter  to  the  Convention 
and  asking  for  a  pension.  His  request  was  granted, 
and  at  once  the  miserable  Gobel,  archbishop  enthroned 
at  Notre  Dame,  appeared  amidst  his  vicars  and  many 
curates  to  follow  the  wretched  example  in  words  so 
vile  that  a  wild  extremist,  Chaumette,  was  moved  to 
rise  in  his  place  and  celebrate  the  hour  when  Reason 
had  resumed  her  seat  in  France.  The  heathen  calen- 
dar of  ten-day  weeks  had  been  adopted  a  month  ear- 
lier ;^  steadily  it  had  been  emphasized  that  priests  were 
to  marry  and  Sundays  were  to  be  days  of  labor — en- 
forced, if  necessary — while  the  Decadis  were  to  be 
holidays  without  labor  and  heathen  festivals.  The  ses- 
sion of  November  seventh  was  a  carnival  of  passion; 
Catholics  and  Protestants  alike  renounced  their  reli- 
gion, and  the  process  of  apostatizing  would  have  swept 
the  hall  but  for  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  grave  and 
noble  Abbe  Gregoire,  who  entered,  gained  the  tribune, 
and,  calmly  declaring  himself  a  sincere,  convinced 
Christian,  exposed  the  motives  of  the  apostacy  and  in  a 
measure  stemmed  the  tide.  In  a  measure  only,  for 
there  was  yet  one  priest  who,  by  permissive  decree  of 
the  Convention,  changed  his  name  of  Erasmus  for  that 
of  Apostate,  and  some  scores  of  his  kind,  including 
thirteen  bishops,  unfrocked  themselves,  married,  and 
swelled  the  flood  of  anarchy  and  apostacy. 


same  year  was  destitute  of  all 
religious  observances,  and  in 
November  M,  J.  Chenier  pro- 
posed to  the  Convention  that 
the  religion  of  the  fatherland 
be  substituted  for  that  of  Christ. 
In  a  country  village  the  people 
discarded  St.  Blaise  as  a  patron 


saint  and  put  Brutus  in  his 
place  as  their  divinity. 

*  Romme  declared  to  Gre- 
goire that  the  revolutionary 
calendar  had  been  invented  by 
him  with  the  express  purpose 
of  abolishing  Sunday.  See 
Memoircs  de  Gregoire,  I.  341. 


198        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


The  climax  of  scandal  was  reached  by  the  machina- 
tions of  Chaumette  and  Hebert;  Danton's  share  in  the 
movement  remains  uncertain.  On  November  tenth, 
1793,  a  public  festival  was  celebrated  in  Notre  Dame, 
newly  consecrated  to  be  a  Temple  of  Reason;  at  the 
impassioned  moment  a  notorious  opera-dancer  dressed 
for  the  part  was  saluted  with  the  fraternal  kiss  by  the 
president  of  the  legislature.  Reason  was  now  the  en- 
throned divinity  of  France.^  Her  worship  was  there- 
upon inaugurated  in  many  other  churches  throughout 
the  land,  and  those  not  thus  used,  or  rather  desecrated, 
were  closed.  One  with  another,  the  high  priests  of 
this  cult  vied  in  devising  and  organizing  new  kinds 
of  orgies,  and  the  shocking  saturnalia  were  continu- 
ously celebrated  until  June  eighth,  1794.  The  only 
mitigation  of  the  horror  is  that  half  at  least  of  the  depu- 
ties refused  all  participation  in  the  sacrilege. 

When,  after  seven  long  months,  the  savage  voluptu- 
aries who  sought  their  account  in  social  chaos  were 
sated,  and  when  revolutionary  France  could  no  longer 
endure  the  espionage  and  tyranny  of  its  own  ma- 
chinery— viz.,  the  committees  of  observation,  of  up- 
heaval, of  execution,  of  court-martial — could  no  longer 
stomach  the  groans  of  prisoners  from  every  convent 
building  far  and  wide  throughout  the  desolate  land,  nor 
endure  the  reek  of  blood  which  flowed  from  guillotines 
in  every  market-place — when,  in  short,  hell  had  no  un- 


^  Within  twenty  days  nearly 
twenty-five  hundred  churches 
were  transformed  into  Temples 
of  Reason.  (See  A.  Gazier, 
Etudes  sur  I'Histoire  Religieuse 
de  la  Revolution,  p.  314.)  It  is 
but  just  to  add  that  the  women 
chosen  elsewhere  to  represent 
the  divinity  of  Reason  were 
not  ordinarily  hetairae ;  as  a 
rule,  they  were  the  favorites  of 


their  respective  communities, 
noted  for  their  spotless  charac- 
ters. In  Paris  the  whole  move- 
ment partook  of  the  mocking 
contempt  so  natural  to  a  French 
urban  population ;  throughout 
the  country  it  was  taken  seri- 
ously and  regarded  as  a  part  of 
the  national  defence  against  Ul- 
tramontane reaction.  See  Au- 
lard,  Culte  de  la  Raison,  p.  112. 


THE  CARNIVAL  OF  IRRELIGION  199 


spent  fury  for  suffering  humanity,  then  at  last  the  lean 
and  bilious  Robespierre  came  forward  with  the  propo- 
sition to  restore  the  Supreme  Being  to  his  place,  and 
for  that  purpose  instituted  another  festival,  burning  an 
effigy  of  atheism  at  the  stake. ^ 

But  the  saturnalia  connected  with  the  festival  of  the 
''Eternal"  were  scarcely  less  impure  than  those  they 
replaced.  The  high  priest  himself  offered  the  bloody 
sacrifice  of  all  who  could  and  would  dispute  his  dicta- 
torship. Strangely  enough,  it  was  the  crazy  perver- 
sion of  his  system  by  an  aged,  destitute,  visionary  bel- 
dame which  ruined  him.  A  certain  Catherine  Theot, 
assisted  by  the  discredited  Dom  Gerle,  celebrated  in  her 
dreary  garret  profane  rites  to  the  mystery  of  the 
"mother  of  God."  It  was  this  sacrilege  which  gave 
the  first  impulse  to  Robespierre's  overthrow.  A  domi- 
ciliary visit  of  the  police  to  this  unhallowed  shrine  dis- 
closed two  documents,  one  an  address  to  the  dictator 
as  "son  of  God,"  the  other  a  certificate  of  "civism" 


^  Robespierre's  confession  of 
faith  is  contained  in  his  ad- 
dress to  the  Convention,  made 
on  April  tenth,  1793.  He  posed 
as  the  inexorable,  unchanging, 
consistent,  upright  man.  Au- 
lard  (Histoirc  Politique,  p. 
423)  quotes  the  pen  portrait 
attributed  by  some  to  Condor- 
cet,  by  others  to  Rabaud :  "He 
has  all  the  marks  not  of  a 
religious  but  of  a  sectarian 
leader ;  he  has  cultivated  a  rep- 
utation for  austerity,  such  as 
suggests  sanctity ;  he  climbs 
upon  a  chair  to  prate  of  God 
and  Providence ;  he  calls  him- 
self a  friend  of  the  poor  and 
the  weak ;  he  collects  a  follow- 
ing of  women  and  feeble- 
minded persons ;  he  solemnly 
accepts  their  homage ;  when 
danger  threatens  he  disappears, 


when  danger  is  past  he  alone  is 
in  view  ;  Robespierre  is  a  priest, 
and  will  never  be  anything 
else."  Robespierre  was  sensi- 
tive to  such  satire,  and  grimly 
cherished  the  purpose  of  re- 
venge until  his  radical  foes 
were  destroyed.  He  was  a  pro- 
nounced, avowed  proselyte  to 
the  religious  system  outlined 
in  Rousseau's  Vicar  of  Savoy, 
secretly  cherishing  the  hope  of 
imposing  that  hazy  dogma 
upon  France  as  a  state  creed. 
The  claim  is  now  widely  made 
by  French  historians  that  the 
Reason  cult  was  dcistic,  and 
that  of  the  Supreme  Being  neo- 
Christian  or  Unitarian ;  but  as 
yet  adequate  proof  in  support 
of  the  contention  is  lacking. 
Danton  certainly  was  an 
avowed  atheist. 


200       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


issued  by  the  person  thus  addressed  to  his  old  friend 
the  whilom  Carthusian.  These  were  the  weapons  first 
used  by  his  enemies  to  discredit  the  man  whom  poor 
old  Theot  had  styled  the  "Redeemer  of  mankind,  the 
Messiah  of  the  prophecies,"  and  who  was  the  self-con- 
stituted apostle  of  God  and  Immortality  as  a  national 
creed. 

Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  a  state  religion, 
Robespierre's  deism  was  a  distinct  advance  on  Chau- 
mette's  atheism.  But  the  majority  of  Frenchmen  drew 
no  distinction  whatever  between  the  two;  they  still 
wanted  no  other  state  religion  than  a  reformed  and 
regenerate  Roman  Catholicism ;  the  numerous  minority 
of  intelligent  liberals  had  come  to  understand  that  any 
state  religion  or  national  cult  whatsoever  meant  perse- 
cution and  anarchy.  Both  these  parties  were  w^eary 
of  the  unending  fiasco.  The  enemies  of  Robespierre 
therefore  found  unlimited  support  in  their  effort  to 
overwhelm  him  with  mocking  contempt.  His  last  ef- 
forts in  public  life  saved  both  Theot  and  her  acolyte, 
Dom  Gerle,  from  the  guillotine ;  but,  reeling  under  this 
first  blow  which  associated  with  him  such  blasphemous 
absurdities  and  made  him  ridiculous,  he  staggered 
under  the  next  and  fell  under  the  last — the  scapegoat 
of  the  Revolution.  Posing  as  the  Incorruptible,  his 
devotees,  chiefly  women,  undid  him  by  their  sentimen- 
tal and  distorted  acceptance  of  his  claims,  and  thus 
permitted  his  destruction  by  a  desperate  band  of  crea- 
tures worse  than  their  victim.  The  events  of  Thermi- 
dor  were  the  work  of  scoundrels,  but  they  put  an  end 
to  national  cults  for  a  time,  brought  about  a  temporary 
separation  of  church  and  state,  and  caused  a  marked 
reaction  in  favor  of  true  religion. 


XII 

A  GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 


XII 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 

A]\IONG  the  "patriots"  and  generally,  throughout 
^  the  Terror,  a  blind,  unquestioning  loyalty  to  the 
system  of  the  Convention  was  expressed  by  the  newly 
coined  term  "civism."  To  be  accused  of  "incivism"  by 
undoubted  terrorists  was  equivalent  to  attainder,  with 
the  penalty  of  death,  outlawry,  or  exile.  This  accusa- 
tion was  the  murderous  weapon  which  fanatic  radicals 
used  throughout  the  term  of  horrors  to  destroy  priests 
of  every  kind.  Many  of  the  Constitutionals,  finding 
their  position  of  functionaries  no  protection,  but  rather 
the  contrary,  since  they  were  plain  targets  for  infidels, 
recanted  and  faced  the  guillotine  as  orthodox  papists. 
This  was  particularly  true  of  those  sentenced  to  the 
Conciergerie.^  The  utterly  ferocious  edicts  of  March 
seventeenth,  April  twenty-first,  and  October  twenty- 
third,  1793,  had  gone  far  to  amalgamate  once  more  the 
earnest  Christian  men  of  all  creeds,  for  the  edicts  virtu- 
ally regarded  piety  as  "incivism,"  and  subjected  those 
who  harbored  priests  to  the  penalties  enacted  against 
their  guests. 

All  who  had  emigrated  or  who  were  found  either 
with  foreign  passports  or  with  "counter-revolutionary 
badges,"  or  who  by  hiding  in  France  sought  to  avoid 
banishment,  were  to  be  shot  within  twenty-four  hours. 

^  See  the  letter  of  Emery  to  the  Pope,  given  in  Thciner, 
Documents  Inedits,  I.  441. 

203 


204        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


All  who  desired  to  make  clear  their  "civism"  were  re- 
quired to  be  spies  and  informers,  and  those  who  in 
pity  protected  fugitives  were  considered  as  partakers 
in  crime.  The  rigorous  execution  of  the  laws  collected 
thousands  for  banishment;  but  since  the  French  flag 
was  no  longer  safe  at  sea,  the  vessels  on  which  they 
were  crowded  could  not  sail  except  in  a  few  instances. 
The  prison-ships  therefore  lay  indefinitely  off  St.- 
Malo,  Rochefort,  and  A-ix.^  It  is  impossible  to  say 
which  suffered  the  worse  fate — those  who,  in  spite  of 
British  cruisers,  reached  the  torrid,  malarial  shores  of 
Africa  and  French  Guiana,  or  the  far  greater  number 
who  endured  buffetings,  starvation,  and  the  horrors 
of  pestilence  between  decks  in  the  craft  that  idly  rocked 
in  French  roadsteads.  Six  hundred  of  the  latter  are 
known  to  have  rendered  up  the  ghost  within  a  sin- 
gle year;  the  atrocities  of  their  jailers  are  indescrib- 
able. 

But  the  majority  of  the  attainted  class  threw  them- 
selves on  the  fidelity  of  their  friendly  parishioners. 
Thousands  were  provided  with  safe  and  comfortable 
hiding-places  at  home,  and  thousands  escaped  from 
France.  Two  thousand  of  the  voluntary  exiles  sought 
refuge  in  the  Papal  States ;  they  were  treated  with  be- 
nevolence, and  enjoyed  a  liberal  hospitality.  About 
the  same  number  were  distributed  throughout  the  vari- 
ous dioceses  of  Spain,  where  likewise  the  archbishops 
and  bishops  vied  one  with  another  in  generosity.  In  the 
Austrian  portion  of  the  Netherlands — what  is  now  Bel- 
gium— great  numbers  were  likewise  entertained,  and 
it  is  related  that  in  Switzerland  the  refugees  were  re- 
ceived as  household  guests  of  the  peasantry,  the  daugh- 

^  For  Carrier's  report  on  this  Salut  Public,  VI 1.  286.  Those 

subject,  see  Documents  Inedits  in  his  charge  were  sent  to  the 

sur  I'Histoire  de  France.    Re-  dungeons    of  Mont-Saint-Mi- 

cucil  des  Actes  du  Comite  de  chel. 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  205 


ters  of  the  host  vacating  their  chambers  and  taking- 
places  as  servants  to  support  the  added  expense.  But 
there  is  no  more  beautiful  page  in  the  history  of  hu- 
manity than  that  which  records  the  reception  and  treat- 
ment of  the  French  emigrant  clergy  in  England.  Dif- 
fering radically  in  every  point  from  their  hosts,  except 
that  of  their  common  Christianity,  the  Ultramontane 
refugees  were  treated  like  brothers.  About  five  thou- 
sand were  lodged,  clothed,  and  fed,  under  no  restric- 
tions of  any  sort  except  that  proselytism  was  discour- 
aged. The  monthly  outlay  for  their  entertainment 
rose  as  high  as  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  about  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars  all  told  were  raised  by  pri- 
vate subscriptions  and  public  collections.^ 

Among  those  who  took  the  Convention  oath  to  main- 
tain liberty  and  equality  by  far  the  most  conspicuous 
was  that  M.  £mery  who  was  the  ghostly  father  of  the 
poor  souls  incarcerated  at  the  Conciergerie.  From  the 
extended  account  of  his  life  which  he  has  given  ^  we 
learn  that  while  he  and  others  composing  a  new  class 
of  conformists  were  considered  as  schismatic  and  des- 
picable, at  first  by  the  emigrant  priests  and  finally  by 
the  Pope  himself,  yet  the  people  of  France  were  not 
so  minded.  In  many  scattered  places  the  sacraments 
were  administered  and  worship  maintained  by  them 
according  to  orthodox  standards.  And  this  situation 
continued  down  to  the  Concordat  of  Napoleon. 

There  was  thus  a  substantial  body  of  Ultramontanes 
ministering  regularly  in  important  places  during  the 
years  of  dominant  atheism.  Satisfied  merely  to  be  un- 
molested, these  men  were  the  strictly  spiritual  com- 
forters and  guides  they  should  have  been.    Like  the 

^  See    Jervis,    The    Gallican  Meric,  Histoire  de  M.  6mery, 

Church  and  the  Revolution,  p.  I.  373,  for  the  argument  of  the 

222.  ,  latter  in  a  letter  to  Romeux. 

^  Vie  de  M.  Emery.    See  also 


2o6       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Abbe  fimery,  they  received  the  retractions  of  repen- 
tant Constitutionals,  giving  absolution  and  comfort  to 
them  and  to  thousands  of  the  faithful.  M.  fimery, 
charged  with  ''incivism"  by  enemies,  but  preserved 
from  the  mockery  of  trial  by  friends,  roused  his  fellow- 
prisoners  to  repentance,  strengthened  the  faith  of  the 
wavering,  and  supported  the  weak  on  the  eve  of  their 
execution.  He  conducted  four  of  the  Constitutional 
bishops — Lamourette,  Fauchet,  Montault,  and  Savines 
— back  into  the  fold.  Had  the  fugitive  Ultramontanes 
behaved  with  the  same  discretion  and  Christian  charity, 
the  results  of  Thermidor  would  have  been  far  different 
from  what  they  were.  But  the  absentees,  supported 
by  Rome,  poisoned  the  arrows  of  their  wit  and  logic 
with  a  bitterness  of  hatred  corresponding  to  that  of  the 
triumphant  Convention,  and  were  ready  for  every  rash 
extreme  of  language  and  conduct  as  soon  as  circum- 
stances permitted  their  return. 

The  typical  instance  of  the  faithful  Constitutional  is, 
of  course,  Gregoire.  It  must  not  for  a  moment  be 
imagined,  in  consequence  of  certain  dramatic  scenes  in 
his  life  already  recounted,  that  he  stood  alone.  Far 
from  it.  His  numerous  associates,  like  the  old  Catho- 
lics of  modern  Germany,  stood  firm  in  their  protest 
against  papal  control  of  temporalities,  and  steadily 
denounced  the  corruptions  of  the  papal  court.  They 
ministered  in  many  churches  and  regularly  performed 
their  pastoral  duties  in  a  spirit  of  humble  but  faithful 
devotion.  It  is  not  possible  to  form  any  estimate 
as  to  the  number  of  their  adherents,  but  their  flocks 
were  at  least  as  numerous  as  those  of  the  conforming 
Ultramontanes.  Like  Gregoire,  they  asserted  their 
Christian  faith  in  season  and  out  of  season.  To  the 
hail  of  calumnies  rained  upon  them  they  answered 
nothing  and  went  their  quiet  way,  enduring  every  form 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  207 


of  persecution,  even  to  martyrdom,  without  flinching. 
They  were  neither  irascible  nor  contentious. 

The  Jacobins  brought  the  charge  against  them  of  seek- 
ing to  "christianize  the  Revolution"  ^  as  a  crime.  They 
gloried  in  it,  and  from  among  the  most  violent  radicals 
made  converts  not  a  few.  Those  very  persons  later 
on  became  blind  devotees,  and  lived  to  throw  in  Gre- 
goire's  face  the  reproach  that  he  had  remained  "too 
much  a  republican."  Throughout  the  reign  of  cruelty 
and  delirium  Gregoire  and  a  few^  faithful  friends  regu- 
larly attended  the  sessions  of  the  Convention,  noting 
every  turn  and  coolly  awaiting  their  opportunity.  It 
could  not  long  be  postponed,  and  the  Bishop  of  Blois 
finally  revised  the  discourse  he  had  long  since  prepared 
on  liberty  of  w^orship.  The  organ  of  the  Constitu- 
tionals, "Annales  de  la  Religion,"  remains  in  several 
files  to  witness  their  high  character  taken  as  a  body. 
The  leader  and  his  forces  were  ready  for  the  coming 
emergency. 

Unfortunately,  no  historical  generalization  is  strictly 
true.  The  madness  of  radicalism,  whether  atheistic  or 
deistic,  was  not  fomented  in  direct  ratio  by  the  menace 
from  without  to  French  national  life  and  independence. 
By  the  middle  of  1794  the  national  existence  was  not 
in  any  degree  threatened.  Civil  war  in  the  west  was 
temporarily  ended  by  the  exploits  of  Kleber  and  Mon- 
ceau  in  the  Vendee ;  the  federal  and  royalist  insurrec- 
tions of  the  east  and  south  were  crushed  in  the 
victories  which  culminated  at  Toulon.  The  foreign  in- 
vaders had  been  driven  over  the  Rhine,  and  Alsace  was 
safe.  Yet  there  was  no  end  to  radical  ferocity.  Like 
Kronos  in  the  fable,  the  Revolution  had  successively 
swallowed  its  children ;  the  orthodox  church,  the  Eras- 
tian  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  the  irreligious  Danton- 
^  Memoires,  II.  52. 


2o8        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


ists  had  all  been  engulfed  in  chaos.  One  single  feeble 
guarantee  of  personal  safety  and  liberty  remained :  the 
revolutionary  tribunal  still  demanded  written  proofs 
and  living  witnesses,  at  least  in  form,  for  the  condem- 
nation of  those  haled  before  it.  On  June  twelfth  (24 
Prairial),by  Robespierre's  behest,  this  one  slender  safe- 
guard was  swept  away,  and,  as  has  been  said,  a  new 
Terror  was  organized  within  the  old.  This  did  not 
pass  unnoticed  by  guilty  souls ;  the  affair  of  Catherine 
Theot  opened  wide  the  door,  Thermidor  was  the  result. 
Once  again  chaos  engulfed  its  own,  and  left  nothing 
but  a  last  vile  remnant  behind.^ 

The  Thermidorians  were  a  degraded  sort  of  Robes- 
pierrists  :  Tallien,Barras,  Freron,  Merlin  de  Thionville. 
Fouche,  Thibaudeau,  Barere  were  the  leaders.  They 
ended  the  Terror  in  Paris,  for  the  prisons  were  gradu- 


^  Scattered  throughout  the 
ninth  volume  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
may  be  found  letters  from  the 
conventional  envoys  in  the 
provinces  which  indicate  a  cer- 
tain cowardice  on  their  part 
when  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  genuine  piety  of  the  people. 
Their  ruthless  efforts  to  "de- 
christianize"  were  in  many 
places  fruitless.  Churches  were 
kept  open,  the  services  were 
fairly  regular,  the  church  bell 
rang.  In  one  case  the  popu- 
lace rose  in  frenzy  against  the 
agents  of  the  Convention,  and 
forced  them  to  drink  holy 
water.  Even  when  the  civic 
festivals  were  celebrated,  Te 
Deums  were  chanted  as  part  of 
the  programme.  It  is  not  en- 
tirely clear  whether  these  Cath- 
olic heroes  of  the  provinces 
were  Constitutionals  or  Ul tra- 
montanes, but  it  is  certain  that, 
while  some  effort  was  spas- 


modically exerted  to  treat  the 
former  with  a  fair  considera- 
tion, in  the  main  no  distinction 
whatever  was  drawn.  The 
priests  of  both  camps  were  re- 
garded as  fomenters  of  sedi- 
tion, and  under  the  plea  that  in 
most  cases,  at  least,  religious 
assemblies  were  subterfuges  for 
the  meeting  of  traitors,  the 
Convention  agents,  wherever 
they  dared,  included  in  their 
denunciations  all  priests,  not 
excepting  Protestant  ministers. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  avowed 
policy  of  the  Convention,  as 
stated  again  and  again  on  the 
floor  of  its  hall,  was  intended  to 
be  conciliatory  to  all  French- 
men of  any  and  every  faith,  it 
is  equally  true  that  it  was  only 
under  intimidation  that  its 
agents  were  actually  fair- 
minded  and  moderate.  Their 
violence  was  boundless,  their 
watchword  was  the  dangerous 
phrase,  "public  safety." 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  209 


ally  delivered,  and  the  guillotine  at  once  ceased  from 
the  shedding  of  blood.  But  while  in  political  matters 
they  quickly  divided  into  a  right  and  a  left,  yet  in  reli- 
gious matters  the  whole  party  was  revolutionary  to  the 
core,  and  not  a  single  one  of  the  Draconian  statutes 
against  religious  liberty  was  repealed.  The  force  of 
circumstances  compelled  a  grudging  moderation.  The 
Jacobin  club  was  closed  until  it  purged  itself  and  dis- 
avowed Robespierre;  renewing  its  sessions,  it  soon 
again  exhibited  something  of  the  old  fierce  radical  tem- 
per, and  was  permanently  closed.  In  the  irreconcilable 
commune  of  Paris  was  substituted  for  the  old  a  new 
police  administration  composed  of  chosen  moderates. 
The  radical  representatives  of  the  Convention  who  had 
been  sent  to  control  the  armies  in  the  field  and  to  over- 
see every  department  of  local  administration  in  the  land 
were  replaced  by  new  men.  The  terrible  revolutionary 
central  committee  was  completely  reorganized.  The 
old  system  remained  in  form,  but  was  thoroughly 
changed  in  character.  This  so-called  revolutionary 
government  survived  until  the  Convention  was  re- 
placed by  the  Directory. 

The  moderates  or  revolutionaries  who  had  formed  a 
coalition  with  the  extreme  radicals  of  the  Mountain, 
the  former  terrorists,  now  struggled  continuously  for 
mild  measures,  and  were  finally  successful.  But  they 
had  always  to  reckon  with  the  embittered  fanatics,  and 
their  progress  was  slow.  Beyond  the  limits  of  Paris 
the  prisons  remained  gorged  with  hundreds  of  priests, 
juror  and  nonjuror  alike,  doomed  to  transportation; 
thousands  more  were  under  official  supervision.  For 
more  than  a  year  the  prisoners  were  subjected  to  every 
form  of  indignity  and  persecution,  kept  in  close  asso- 
ciation with  the  vilest  criminals,  starved,  manacled, 
and  even  executed  without  process  of  law.    Within  a 


210       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


few  months  nearly  half  of  the  poor  victims  were  dead 
under  the  agonies  of  suffering  to  which  they  were 
doomed. 

But  the  martyrs  were  no  longer  without  advocates 
in  the  legislature :  once  more  and  with  glowing  logic 
the  noble  Gregoire  began  to  plead  the  cause  of  reli- 
gious liberty,  nor  did  he  feel  the  slightest  tremor  before 
the  yells  and  execrations  of  the  bedlamites  among 
the  deputies  who  opposed  him.  His  one  repeated  cry 
was  for  complete  liberty  of  thought  and  worship,  a 
total  emancipation  of  religion  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
state.  His  most  powerful  effort  was  that  speech  which 
he  had  ready  for  the  decisive  moment.  It  was  deliv- 
ered on  December  twenty-first,  1794,  and  immediately 
thereafter  widely  distributed  throughout  the  country  in 
pamphlet  form.^  The  contents  of  this  document  re- 
acted vigorously  on  public  opinion,  and  finally  served 
to  cement  the  elements  of  a  sane  and  wholesome  feel- 
ing for  thorough  reforms  in  existing  conditions.  In 
February,  1795,  from  about  four  hundred  priests  who 
had  been  imprisoned  in  the  departments  less  than  a 
hundred  survived,  and  these  were  liberated. 

In  the  introduction  to  his  pamphlet  Gregoire  de- 
clared that,  having  been  calumniated  in  the  past  for 
insisting  on  toleration  for  Jews,  Protestants,  and  Ana- 
baptists, he  had  vowed  to  denounce  all  oppressors,  and 
that  none  were  more  intolerable  than  those  who,  having 
applauded  atheism  at  the  bar  of  the  Convention,  could 
not  forgive  a  man  for  holding  the  same  religious  prin- 
ciples as  those  of  Pascal  and  Fenelon.  Soon  after  he 
issued  a  pastoral  of  the  same  tenor,  advocating  the 
reestablishment  of  worship.  As  a  result  of  his  agita- 
tion, the  fanatical  radicals  found  no  support  for  their 

^  The  text  of  this  speech  may  Religiense  de  la  Revolution 
be  found  in  Gazier,  Histoire     Frangaise,  p.  341. 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  211 


indignant  protests.  With  Paris  thus  in  equihhrium,  the 
departments  soon  made  themselves  heard,  and  Boissy 
d'Anglas,  Protestant  by  origin  but  infidel  by  profes- 
sion, demanded,  in  the  name  of  the  three  all-powerful 
committees — of  Public  Welfare,  of  General  Safety,  and 
of  Legislation — that  "all  citizens  be  permitted  to  wor- 
ship with  whatever  ceremonies  their  own  taste  and 
judgment  approved."  He  mercilessly  exposed  the 
errors  of  persecuting  atheism,  and  it  was  finally  de- 
creed, on  February  twenty-first,  1795,  that  all  public 
support,  pensions,  salaries,  or  the  use  of  public  build- 
ings, be  withdrawn ;  that  within  such  edifices  as  were 
set  apart  for  the  purpose  all  forms  of  worship  should 
be  unmolested.^ 

Formally  this  law  was  not  to  be  interpreted  as  con- 
flicting with  that  which  required  the  oath  to  maintain 
liberty  and  equality;  this  w^as  very  significant,  since  it 
maimed  the  principle  and  left  a  vent  for  the  persecut- 
ing temper  of  the  radicals.  But  otherwise  it  w^as  a 
remarkable  statute  as  regards  its  language.  Would  that 
it  had  expressed  the  national  purpose !  Its  short-lived 
validity  accomplished  something,  but  the  ineradicable 
propensity  of  mankind  to  unload  every  burden  possible 
upon  the  social  organization  was,  and  is,  nowhere  so 
strong  as  among  the  French.  It  is  the  most  dangerous 
survival  of  the  primeval  curse.  Yet  France  was  pas- 
sionately eager  for  momentary  relief,  and  ready,  for 
the  sake  of  a  respite  from  galling  fetters,  to  abandon 
the  public  crib  for  a  time. 

Referring  to  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  the  Rights  of  Man  and  in  the  constitution,  it  was 
enacted  by  the  decree  that  all  worship  should  be  unmo- 
lested and  might  be  celebrated,  at  the  cost  of  the  par- 
ticipants, in  places  without  external  marks  of  distinc- 

^  The  te-xt  of  this  law  is  most  accessible  in  Gazier,  p.  255. 


212        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


tion,  hired  by  the  congregations  occupying  them.  There 
was  to  be  no  ecclesiastical  garb,  no  public  ceremony,  no 
public  summons  to  any  exercise.  Every  gathering  was 
subject  to  state  supervision,  but  only  for  the  guarantee 
of  public  safety  by  the  police.  This  was  another  phrase 
destined  to  notoriety  in  the  next  epoch.  One  of  the 
most  striking  paragraphs  of  the  decree  forbade  the 
accumulations  of  endowments  for  the  support  of  wor- 
ship. France  had  seen  the  disasters  consequent  upon 
mortmain,  secular  and  ecclesiastical;  the  Convention 
was  grim  in  its  determination  that  they  should  not 
again  overtake  remote  generations. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  remarkable  series  of  enact- 
ments, persecution  did  not  cease  even  for  a  moment; 
wherever  it  was  possible,  the  Jacobin  authorities  stood 
on  legal  technicalities,  which  were  easily  discoverable 
among  the  swollen  volumes  of  legislation  enacted  by 
the  irresponsible  revolutionary  assemblies;  contradic- 
tions were  on  every  page,  and  the  most  wary  could  not 
avoid  the  innumerable  pitfalls. 

Thus  ostensibly  was  accomplished  in  theory  what 
had  been  the  aim  of  a  few  careful  observers  and  pro- 
found thinkers  for  years  past :  the  divorce  of  state 
and  church.  To  this  hour  it  is  claimed  that  the  Revo- 
lution actually  inaugurated  religious  liberty  in  France, 
and  that  wicked  men  overthrew  the  beneficent  institu- 
tions erected  to  protect  it.  The  matter  is  worthy  of 
careful  examination.  The  impulse  to  this  momentous 
act  was  complex.  We  have  noted  the  poet  call  of 
Andre  Chenier  and  the  prophetic  fire  of  Gregoire. 
Both  might  have  had  no  results  except  for  the  entangle- 
ment in  the  finances  caused  by  the  course  of  ecclesias- 
tical legislation  since  the  Revolution  began  its  course. 
Of  all  the  denominational  and  sectarian  fragments  that 
have  been  enumerated  only  one  had  a  legal  standing 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  213 


— that  of  the  Constitutionalists.  Its  adherents  could, 
as  public  functionaries,  demand  pay  from  the  treas- 
ury; but  so  likewise,  after  Thermidor,  could  almost 
every  priest,  monk,  and  nun,  for  under  one  legislative 
body  or  another  to  each  and  all  had  been  promised  pen- 
sions.^ To  be  sure,  there  was  in  every  case  some  re- 
striction or  other  in  connection  with  profession  and 
conduct,  but  proof  was  impossible,  and  the  clamor 
would  soon  be  intolerable. 

Besides  all  these  obligations,  both  atheistic  and  deis- 
tic  ceremonies  had  been  elaborately  celebrated  at  the 
public  expense,  and  it  was  morally  certain  that  the  min- 
isters of  the  secular  cult,  which  was  determined  to 
make  itself  national  by  forcing  the  observance  of  the 
national  ten-day  festival,  would  likewise  demand  sup- 
port from  the  nation  in  whose  interest  they  would  so 
ostentatiously  be  working.  All  this  expense  the  bud- 
get could  not  support,  and  Cambon,  on  September 
twentieth,  1794,  brought  this  fact  to  the  attention  of 
the  Convention.  Exasperated  with  Robespierre,  the 
Thermidorians,  radical  and  moderate,  w^ere  well  dis- 


^  We  have  indicated  else- 
where that  the  entire  clergy 
had  in  one  of  two  forms  been 
promised  a  measure  of  state 
support.  Those  who  were  dis- 
placed by  the  confiscation  of 
the  ecclesiastical  estates  and  the 
working  of  the  Civil  Consti- 
tution were  to  receive  pensions, 
others  a  salary.  On  September 
twenty-seventh,  1792,  pensions 
were  fixed  at  a  thousand  livres  ; 
the  salaries  varied  according 
to  provisions  of  the  law.  But 
on  the  plea  of  suspected  dis- 
loyalty, the  Convention,  in 
September,  1793.  reduced  the 
salaries  of  bishops  to  six  thou- 
sand livres  and  abolished  all 
the  vicariates,  pensioning  the 


incumbents  with  twelve  hun- 
dred livres.  When  recanting 
grew  common  the  apostates 
were  also  pensioned  with  twelve 
hundred  livres.  But  financial 
stress  put  an  end  to  all  pay- 
ments whatsoever  for  pensions 
or  salaries  some  months  before 
the  revolution  of  Thermidor. 
It  was  because  of  the  demands 
made  by  the  Constitutionals, 
who  had  still  a  legal  claim,  that 
Cambon  suggested  finally  the 
complete  separation  of  church 
and  state  ;  the  measure  had  no 
relation  to  the  convictions  of 
radicals,  philosophers,  or  even 
the  moderate  reformers ;  it  was 
purely  a  matter  of  public  econ- 
omy. 


214       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


posed  to  reject  whatever  he  had  advocated,  and  a  na- 
tional religion  with  functionary  ministers  in  state  pay 
had  been  his  pivotal  doctrine.  Hence,  for  the  moment 
all  conflicting  elements  could  unite  in  nullifying  the 
Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  and  the  disestablish- 
ment of  the  church.  It  was  the  fixed  conviction  of  the 
few  and  the  sense  of  expediency  felt  by  the  many  which 
enacted  the  famous  decree  we  are  discussing,  best 
known  as  that  of  3  Ventose,  year  III. 

Nevertheless,  in  general  the  effect  of  the  Ventose  de- 
cree was  electrical.  Chapels  were  opened  to  throngs 
of  worshippers  both  in  Paris  and  in  the  departments. 
In  April  the  Convention  signed  a  treaty  with  the  Ven- 
dean  rebels,  and  at  once  worship  was  restored  in  the 
churches  throughout  the  western  districts.  For  the 
most  part  there  was  no  opposition ;  but  in  places  where 
radical  Jacobins  were  numerous  a  few  successful  efforts 
were  made  to  restrain  the  priests  by  fine  or  imprison- 
ment, on  the  ground  that  they  were  desecrating  the  re- 
publican calendar  and  defying  the  republican  laws.  In 
truth,  the  situation  was  in  theory  most  abnormal.  The 
Civil  Constitution  had  not  been  formally  repealed ;  the 
churches  had  not  been  legally  reopened.  There  was 
great  uneasiness,  therefore,  among  the  Constitutionals 
and  their  supporters. 

By  a  supplementary  decree  of  11  Prairial  (May 
thirtieth,  1795)  all  churches  which  had  not  been  sold 
were  restored  to  the  communes,  to  be  used  as  halls  of 
assembly  for  all  purposes,  including  worship,  and  no 
priest  was  to  officiate  who  had  not  taken  the  oath. 
This  gave  great  comfort  to  the  Constitutionals,  and  vir- 
tually perpetuated  their  organization.  But  there  arose 
even  greater  confusion  than  before;  it  was  in  the 
churches  that  the  Decadi  was  celebrated.  This  was  a 
desecration.   It  had  been  the  intention  that  the  celebra- 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  215 


tion  of  the  Decadis  should  be  essentially  secular. 
There  were  to  be,  and  already  there  were,  lectures  on 
such  themes  as  ''civism,"  the  culture  of  the  potato,  the 
nature  of  the  constitution,  and  so  on.  Even  the  radi- 
cals felt  the  intolerable  tedium  ot  such  performances — a 
dreariness  not  relieved  in  the  slightest  by  the  singing 
of  national  songs,  as  was  ordered.  Boissy  d'Anglas 
wildly  suggested  that  the  ceremonies  should  be  enliv- 
ened and  made  interesting  by  the  presentation  of  a  rose 
to  innocence,  or  similar  naive  parodies  of  worship. 
Chenier  boldly  advocated  the  further  evolution  of  great 
national  festivals,  and  calls  were  made  in  the  sessions 
of  the  legislature  for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of 
the  work.  One  deputy  absent  in  the  provinces  noted 
with  dismay  the  religious  revival,  and  demanded  a 
radical  cure,  partly  by  public  instruction  and  partly  by 
the  tenth-day  feasts.  A  formal  bill  to  this  effect  was 
presented  in  January.  It  was  nearly  a  year  before  the 
civic  banquets  and  festivals  were  organized.  They 
were  predestined  to  failure  because  the  popular  feeling 
had  rebelled  against  all  the  republican-democratic  inno- 
vations which  they  typified.  Many  already  understood 
that  such  devices  were  hollow  and  of  no  avail. 

Recognizing  how  abhorrent  to  nature  even  a  reli- 
gious vacuum  is,  the  radical  sectaries  were  busy  organ- 
izing the  so-called  religious  movement,  in  the  national 
interest,  of  which  we  have  spoken.  It  was  to  be  styled 
Theophilanthropy,  and  its  inventors  desired  to  retain 
general  observance  of  the  tenth  day,  in  order  to  render 
truly  national  their  contemplated  absurdity  of  a  cult. 
These  spurious  religionists  and  the  so-called  patriots 
in  general  wished  to  quench  *'the  reviving  fanaticism,'* 
and  in  order  to  gain  time  and  place  for  their  own  plans 
desired  a  penalty  of  six  months'  imprisonment  to  be 
imposed  on  any  one  reestablishing  worship  in  the 


2i6       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


churches.  They  made  some  headway  on  the  ground  of 
''pubHc  safety,"  but  the  victory  over  the  uprising  of 
I  Prairial  (May  twentieth,  1795)  reassured  the  Con- 
vention as  to  the  reahty  of  its  power;  and  Lanjuinais, 
citing  the  example  of  Vendee,  proposed  and  had  en- 
acted a  decree  which  reopened  such  churches  through- 
out France  as  had  been  in  use  before  the  second  year 
of  the  RepubHc  (September  twenty-second,  1793). 

This  law  was  passed  on  September  twenty-seventh, 
1795.  It  subjected,  "in  behalf  of  public  security,"  all 
gatherings  for  worship  to  the  oversight  of  the  police, 
and  forbade  all  attempts  to  restrain  liberty  of  con- 
science or  interfere  in  any  way  with  any  form  of  wor- 
ship whatever.^  It  required  but  a  single  guarantee, 
namely,  that  every  minister  of  religion  should  affirm : 
'T  acknowledge  that  the  totality  of  the  French  people 
is  sovereign,  and  I  promise  obedience  and  submission 
to  the  laws  of  the  Republic."  Although  in  this  there 
is  a  complete  acknowledgment  of  secular  supremacy, 
yet  it  would  seem  that,  even  including  the  last  clause, 
it  would,  if  generally  obeyed,  have  secured  a  free 
church  and  have  inaugurated  the  voluntary  system  of 
support. 

But  this  last  clause,  though  generally  acceptable  and 
accepted  in  Paris  as  a  mere  recognition  of  the  powers 
that  be,  proved  a  stumbling-block  to  the  clergy  of  the 
departments.  Their  recalcitrancy  led  to  further  ob- 
scurantist legislation,  which  soon  eclipsed  all  the  light 
shed  by  the  Convention  on  the  problem  of  complete  re- 
ligious liberty.  The  Abbe  fimery  pleaded,  as  head  of 
the  archiepiscopal  council,  and  pleaded  earnestly,  for 
submission  without  approval,  as  priests  perforce  must 

^  These  phrases  of  "public  tose  and  repeated  here,  were 
security"  and  "police  power,"  destined  to  be  pivotal  to  Napo- 
first  used  in  the  decree  of  Ven-     Icon's  Concordat. 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  217 


do  in  Protestant  and  Mohammedan  countries.  But,  as 
he  admitted,  the  fewest  ecclesiastics  had  even  rudimen- 
tary ideas  of  poHtical  jurisprudence,  and  the  rest  re- 
fused all  compromise  or  conciliation.  In  the  west 
numerous  nonjuring  priests  made  formal  reservation 
of  their  religious  principles  and  complied  with  the  law, 
though  they  refused  to  officiate  in  buildings  used  by  the 
jurors,  as  being  temples  defiled.  The  officials  accepted 
this  solution  because  already  the  mutterings  of  further 
insurrection  were  audible.  But  in  Lyons  the  Conven- 
tion agents  demanded  compliance  without  reservation, 
though  they  winked  at  a  wide-spread  reopening  of 
churches  without  any  formal  assertion  of  principle  by 
the  vicars  and  curates. 

Possibly  some  arrangement  might  have  been  reached 
throughout  the  country  in  varying  compromises  suited 
to  the  respective  localities.  But  a  royalist  expedition, 
outfitted  in  England  under  Pitt's  auspices,  landed  at 
Quiberon  only  two  short  months  after  the  pacification 
of  Vendee,  and  with  it  were  forty  priests,  led  by  the 
emigrant  Bishop  of  Dol.  The  invasion  was  momen- 
tarily successful,  but  Hoche  suppressed  it  with  piti- 
less severity,  and  by  order  of  the  Convention  seven 
hundred  persons,  including  sixteen  priests,  with  the 
bishop  and  his  coadjutor,  were  shot  on  July  thir- 
tieth, 1795.  Simultaneously  the  government  claimed, 
and  probably  with  right,  to  have  discovered  a  wide- 
spread conspiracy  among  the  ecclesiastics  for  the  resto- 
ration of  royalty  and  Catholicism  as  held  by  the  Ultra- 
montanes.  Certain  it  is  that  the  ''refractory"  priests 
throughout  France  continued  to  treat  their  conforming 
brethren  with  contempt,  descending  even  to  scur- 
rilous and  fierce  attacks,  written  and  physical.  Emi- 
grants, too,  began  to  reenter  France  from  all  direc- 
tions, inciting  their  friends  and  such  others  as  they 


2i8        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


could  influence  not  only  to  restore  royalty,  but  to  mas- 
sacre the  representatives  of  the  people — all,  they  as- 
serted, for  the  greater  glory  of  God  and  the  safety  of 
the  republic !  To  this  end  there  was  a  series  of  bloody 
and  successful  efforts,  fuller  mention  of  which  is  best 
made  in  another  connection,  at  Lyons,  Marseilles, 
Nimes,  Tarascon,  and  generally  throughout  the  south. 

This  shocking  and  shameful  conduct  of  the  clericals 
and  the  clerical  factions  was  met  by  a  fierce  rebound  on 
the  part  of  the  radicals.  On  September  sixth  the  Leg- 
islative Committee  issued  a  series  of  rescripts  in  which 
recusant  priests  were  forbidden  to  reenter  France 
under  pain  of  banishment.  Those  still  resident  who 
refused  the  declaration  under  the  law  of  Prairial  were 
to  be  imprisoned.  Every  conceivable  check  was  de- 
vised to  bring  recalcitrants  to  terms.  Any  one  who 
promulgated  any  document  emanating  from  a  minister 
of  religion  not  residing  in  France  (the  Pope)  or  his 
delegate  was  to  be  imprisoned,  and  any  person  advo- 
cating royalty  or  the  betrayal  of  the  republic  was  to  be 
imprisoned  for  life.  Even  censure  of  measures  already 
taken  to  regulate  ecclesiastical  affairs  was  to  be  pun- 
ished by  fine  or  imprisonment. 

This  pronunciamento  was  received  by  the  clericals 
with  a  dismay  paralleled  only  by  that  with  which  they 
had  received  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  and 
fierce  dissensions  split  their  ranks.  The  moderates, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Abbe  turnery,  held  up  the 
past  folly  of  those  who  had  refused  the  earlier  test  of 
mere  submission  to  the  laws.  As  to  the  phrase  of  ''sov- 
ereignty residing  in  the  universality  or  totality  of  the 
French  people,"  the  leader  declared  that  he  could  and 
did  accept  the  statement  as  a  fact,  though  he  could  not 
support  the  implied  theory;  moreover,  the  most  ortho- 
dox Roman  publicists  of  comparatively  recent  times,  he 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  219 


said,  had  even  maintained  the  statement  as  a  thesis — 
men  like  Suarez,  Salmeron,  and  Navarre.  Discussion 
raged  and  bitterness  supplanted  all  Christian  charity 
until  even  the  archiepiscopal  council  was  sundered  and 
the  ranks  of  the  clericals  shattered.  Schism  was  uni- 
versal and  complete.  The  most  stubborn  reactionaries 
held  together  in  a  small  group  known  as  the  ''Little 
Church." 

Once  more  the  royalists  and  discontented  of  every 
type  drew  together  into  a  formidable  coalition  against 
the  Convention,  and  once  more  the  rebellion  was  ruth- 
lessly suppressed  by  an  army.  In  the  conflict  of  Oc- 
tober fourth,  known  as  the  Day  of  the  Sections,  a 
shrewd,  intelligent,  observant  adventurer,  an  officer 
already  of  some  renown  in  the  revolutionary  armies  of 
France,  was  the  man  of  greatest  importance.  It  was 
on  that  day  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  launched  on 
his  grand  career.^  Meantime,  with  strange  fatuity,  the 
political  theorists  had  concocted  another  idealistic  con- 
stitution, providing  for  many  details  of  government 
far  removed  on  the  one  hand  from  radical  concepts, 
and  on  the  other  from  the  political  habits  of  the  people. 
It,  too,  was  abortive  even  without  the  short  trial  of  life 
it  was  destined  to  have,  because  it  rested  on  military 
force  for  its  basis,  and  no  civil  constitution  can  stand 
unless  it  be  the  expression  of  strong  general  conviction 
and  of  habits  both  political  and  social.  Since  blood  had 
filled  the  gutters  of  Paris  through  the  intrigues  of  re- 
actionary priests  but  lately  returned  to  France,  the  Con- 
vention, on  October  twenty-fifth,  ordered  that  all  laws 
against  such  should  be  put  into  execution  within  twen- 
ty-four hours.    On  October  twenty-sixth,  after  extend- 

^  An  admirable  study  of  this  Lcttrcs  dc  TUiiiversite  dc  Paris, 
"Day"  may  be  found  in  the  Vol.  VI.  Zivy.  Lc  Treize  Ven- 
Bibliotheque  de  la  Faculte  des     demiaire  An  IV. 


220       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


ing  amnesty  to  all  except  the  plotting  priests,  it  handed 
over  the  reins  of  government  to  the  most  feeble  and 
contemptible  administration  ever  set  to  rule  a  great 
country — that  of  the  Directory. 

The  earliest  acts  of  the  executive  committee  which 
now  wielded  the  sovereignty  were  an  effort  to  exhaust 
the  scanty  forces  of  the  disheartened,  disintegrated,  and 
prostrate  Church  of  Rome.  Persecution  was  renewed 
with  frightful  bitterness,  and  in  the  effort  to  discoun- 
tenance worship  the  ringing  of  church  bells  was  pro- 
hibited. In  this  way  the  church  bell  became  the  shib- 
boleth of  parties.^  Fighting  and  strife  were  openly 
renewed  in  many  quarters.  Within  a  few  months 
twenty-six  priests  were  done  to  death,  with  or  without 
what  was  called  due  process  of  law.  The  new  consti- 
tution was  so  far  anti-radical  as  to  provide  for  two 
houses  in  the  legislature.  In  the  lower  one,  where  Ja- 
cobinism was  rampant,  the  most  extreme  measures  were 
passed;  the  older,  graver  men  of  the  upper  one  threw 
them  out  on  the  ground  that  they  were  a  breach  of  sol- 
emn promises,  and  would  surely  rekindle  the  flames  of 
civil  war.  Count  Portalis,  ere  long  to  exert  a  para- 
mount influence,  pleaded  vigorously  for  religious  tol- 
eration. Recalling  the  prediction  of  Rousseau,  that 
philosophers,  once  in  power,  would  become  more  relent- 
less persecutors  than  the  ecclesiastics,  he  proved  con- 
clusively, in  an  eloquent  speech,  that  liberty  of  con- 

^  All  the  contemporary  records  Catholic  religion.  I  do  not  see, 
abound  in  discussions  about  the  therefore,  why  you  should  for- 
church  bell.  One  which  is  bid  the  common  means  of  call- 
perhaps  as  short  and  enlighten-  ing  the  citizens  to  worship.  It 
ing  as  any  may  be  found  in  the  was  formerly  used,  and  is  still 
Moniteur,  June  seventeenth,  used  for  public  assemblies." 
1797,  No.  269.  Said  Parisot,  Several  members  cried :  "These 
one  of  the  debaters  :  "You  can-  assemblies  are  constitutional, 
not  conceal  from  yourselves  religious  service  is  not."  Amid 
that  almost  the  totality  of  the  tumult  the  meeting  adjourned. 
French   people   professes  the 


GLIMPSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  221 


science  was  the  only  remedy  for  fanaticism.  Within  a 
year  and  a  half  public  opinion  throughout  the  country 
veered  once  more,  officials  grew  timid,  the  measures  of 
the  Convention  were  not  enforced,  and  by  1797  one  of 
the  five  directors  (Barthelemy)  was  a  royalist,  while  a 
group  of  intelligent,  moderate  men  in  both  houses  con- 
trolled legislation,  against  a  majority  of  radicals  in  the 
lower,  against  a  minority  of  the  same  in  the  upper. 
The  dominant  force  was  a  body  of  moderate  republi- 
cans and  royalists  combined  in  the  upper  house. 


XIII 

ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY 


XIII 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY 


OR  the  period  of  three  years,  from  1792  to  1795, 


X  the  resources  of  France  had  seemed  boundless;  in 
her  supreme  eftort  of  self-defence  the  superbly  inex- 
haustible reservoirs  of  nature's  primeval  forces  were 
apparently  at  her  disposal.  Under  the  republic  the 
nation  had  been  unified;  out  of  raw  plebeian  material 
had  been  created  a  resistless  army,  generals  by  the 
score  who  were  the  peers  of  Turenne,  of  Luxembourg, 
of  Tallard,  diplomats  superior  to  Mazarin  or  Barillon, 
administrators  who  could  vie  w^ith  Colbert  and  Lou- 
vois.  At  Bale  the  European  coalition  against  her  was 
disbanded,  the  national  frontiers  of  ancient  Gaul  were 
secured,  and  the  cherished  policy  of  natural  boundaries 
which  the  monarchy  could  flaunt  only  as  an  ideal  was 
now  brilliantly  realized.  Though  Great  Britain  and 
Austria  were  implacable,  yet  the  one  seemed  exhausted 
and  the  other  contem.ptible.  Finally,  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  year  III.  a  new  system  of  European  public 
law  was  announced,  for  thereafter  France  was  to  re- 
main what  she  had  become  by  an  unpremeditated  con- 
juncture of  circumstances — a  republic. 

But  in  erecting  the  political  structure  known  as  the 
Directory  the  social  structure  of  France  was  disre- 
garded and  its  religious  conditions  ignored.  From  17^9 
onward  the  successive  phases  of  political  and  social 
change  had  been  marked  by  convulsions  euphemistically 


226       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


known  as  ''Days."  These  exhibitions  of  mob  violence 
were  steadily  growing  more  frequent.  The  Convention 
had  been  forced  to  identify  itself  with  the  Paris  riots 
of  May  thirty-first  and  June  second,  1793;  it  had  suc- 
ceeded in  suppressing  the  hostile  insurrections  of  the 
south  and  west  by  its  citizen  armies.  Under  the  Terror 
its  difficulties  were  intestine,  and  Thermidor  was  a 
reaction.  But  no  sooner  w^ere  all  the  factions  reunited 
in  Paris  than  the  Days  recurred  with  ominous  celerity. 

The  Day  of  12  Germinal  (April  first,  1795)  over- 
threw the  surviving  terrorists;  the  Day  of  i  Prairial 
(May  twentieth)  and  its  successors  virtually  extermi- 
nated them.  The  prisons  of  France  were  now  gorged 
with  radicals,  as  they  had  been  formerly  with  royalists. 

A  new  Terror  reared  its  aw^ful  head,  and  in  the  south- 
east its  excesses  were  ghastly.  Organizing  secret  asso- 
ciations, under  the  style  of  Companies  of  the  Sun,  of 
Jesus,  of  Jehu,  the  Ultramontane  party  formed  again 
like  magic,  many  emerging  from  their  retreats  on 
French  soil,  many  of  the  emigrants  reappearing  as  if 
from  the  regions  under  the  earth. ^  At  Lyons  and  at 
Roanne  they  made  a  general  jail  delivery  of  the  repub- 
licans and  massacred  all.  Brought  to  trial,  the  assas- 
sins were  triumphantly  acquitted,  and  hailed  by  the 
populace  as  heroes.  At  Aix  the  prisoners  were  tor- 
tured with  horrid  barbarity  and  then  murdered  by  roy- 
alists from  Marseilles.  The  fort  at  Tarascon  was 
broken  open  by  a  band  of  armed  men,  and  the  pris- 
oners were  flung  into  the  Rhone.  The  workmen  of 
Toulon  rose  in  defence  of  their  republican  faith,  and 
a  royalist  army,  drawn  together  with  almost  preter- 
natural celerity,  overwhelmed  them  completely,  show- 
ing no  quarter.    The  final  scene  of  this  short  and  awful 

^  Rapport  de  M.  J.  Chenier  a  la  Convention.  Moniteur, 
An  III.,  No.  279. 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  227 


carnage  was  the  murder,  on  June  fifth,  1795,  at  Mar- 
seilles, of  all  the  republicans  incarcerated  at  Fort  St. 
John. 

This  carnival  of  murder  was  the  White  Terror.  It 
had  political  significance  only  in  so  far  as  the  irrecon- 
cilable ecclesiastics  instigated  it,  identifying  themselves 
with  the  royalist  revival  and  with  monarchy  itself. 
Simultaneously  the  Comte  de  Provence,  then  at  Ve- 
rona, announced  that  Louis  XVIL  havinsf  died  in  the 
Temple  on  June  eighth,  he  himself  now  reigned  as 
Louis  XVIIL,  and  would  restore  the  old  regime.  This 
and  similar  acts  were  most  ill  advised  from  every  point 
of  view,  for  even  the  most  ardent  royalists  were  by 
this  time  aware  that  in  the  new  era  Constitutional  mon- 
archy and  a  reformed  church  could  alone  have  any 
chance  for  life.  There  was  a  distinctly  noticeable  anti- 
royalist  reaction  both  in  Paris  and  in  the  departments. 

Thus  encouraged,  the  Convention  had  taken  heart, 
and  on  the  Day  of  13  Vendemiaire,  year  IV.  (October 
fourth,  1795),  the  most  famous  Day  of  all,  the  Day 
of  the  Sections,  it  suppressed,  by  a  detachment  of  its 
invincible  army,  a  mutiny  in  Paris  caused  by  an  ever 
growing  distrust  of  the  Convention  in  general,  in  par- 
ticular by  the  Convention  decree  requiring  two  thirds  of 
the  next  legislature  to  be  members  of  the  existing  one.^ 
This  use  of  the  army  was  a  new  departure,  and  the 
Directory  took  the  lesson  to  heart.  It  was  a  Conven- 
tion army  which  ''pacified"  Vendee;  it  was  the  pres- 
tige of  a  Convention  army  which  suppressed  the  com- 
munistic revolt  of  Babeuf,  and  it  was  the  ruthless  work 
of  another  which  accomplished  the  Jacobin  revival  on 
the  Day  of  18  Fructidor,  year  V.  (September  fourth, 
1797).  Still  another  Day,  that  of  22  Floreal,  year 
VI.  (April  eleventh,  1798),  was  carried  through  by 

'    ^  Zivy,  Le  Treize  Vendemiaire,  p.  15. 


228        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


the  awe  of  the  miHtary  as  incarnated  in  Bonaparte, 
then  present  in  Paris.  The  legislature  was  at  one 
stroke  purged  of  some  sixty  radical  democrats  who 
had  been  duly  elected.  By  this  time  the  system  of 
the  Directory  was  thoroughly  discredited,  for  military 
force  was  now  manifestly  paramount  in  politics. 

The  elections  of  the  year  VIL,  though  peaceable 
and  regular,  were  profoundly  influenced  by  the  failures 
of  the  Directory  abroad.  Jourdan's  army  had  been  de- 
feated and  driven  back  across  the  Rhine,  and,  as  indi- 
cating a  wide-spread  contempt  for  the  republic,  the 
French  plenipotentiaries  in  the  Congress  of  Rastatt  had 
not  only  been  overwhelmed  with  obloquy,  but,  as  the 
sequel  proved,  were  in  danger  of  their  lives.  Hence 
the  new^  legislature  was  distinctly  unsympathetic  with 
the  new  constitution.  By  the  menace  of  exposing  its 
inefficiency  the  wretched  Directory  was  delivered  to  its 
enemies,  and  by  them  thrown  into  a  panic.  The  Day 
of  30  Prairial,  year  Vn.(June  seventeenth,  1799),  saw 
the  withdrawal  from  the  Directorate  of  its  two  sin- 
cerely republican  members — Merlin,  under  the  charge 
of  a  disgusting  Machiavellianism,  and  La  Revelliere- 
Lepeaux,  under  that  of  attacking  liberty  of  conscience 
in  order  to  favor  Theophilanthropy.  The  charges  are 
as  significant  as  the  fact  of  withdrawal.  One  is  of 
immorality,  the  other  of  irreligion.  Once  more  it 
seems  as  if  the  political  condition  of  France  was  deter- 
mined by  religious  forces. 

In  any  case,  there  was  a  gradual  and  permanent  re- 
arrangement of  social  elements.  The  moderate  repub- 
licans and  royalists  of  the  new  type  alike  favored  some 
form  of  constitution  which  should  be  really  expressive 
of  the  new  French  temper,  symptoms  of  which  could 
now  be  seen.  These  symptoms  were,  in  fact,  not 
merely  visible,  they  had  already  brought  into  promi- 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  229 


nence  a  class  of  men  which  was  effectively  asserting  its 
power.  That  power  was  based  in  the  sad  experiences 
of  so-called  religious  liberty  under  the  contemptible  and 
impotent  Directory.  Its  inefficiency  in  war  and  diplo- 
macy was  of  a  piece  with  its  impolitic  and  feeble  con- 
duct at  home.  This  fact  had  deeply  impressed  the 
politicians  destined  to  sway  the  men  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration. The  most  trustworthy  of  this  class  were  Ca- 
mille  Jordan,  Royer-Collard,  Boissy  d'Anglas,  Portalis, 
Pastoret,  Simeon,  and  Barbe-Marbois ;  Barthelemy  and 
the  great  Carnot,  though  less  active,  were  not  ill  dis- 
posed to  the  strivings  of  their  colleagues. 

Some  of  these  men — Royer-Collard  and  Camille  Jor- 
dan, for  example — were  newly  elected,  and  had  taken 
no  share  in  the  fiercer  strife  of  the  Revolution.  The  lat- 
ter, in  an  epochal  oration^  delivered  on  June  fifteenth, 
1797,  began  the  movement  of  transition  by  an  attack 
on  the  entire  legislation  of  the  successive  assemblies, 
National,  Legislative,  and  Convention,  which,  together, 
in  feverish  precipitancy,  had  in  six  years  enacted  no 
fewer  than  fifteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine  laws!  With  clarion  call  he  demanded  a  revision 
of  the  statute-books,  based  on  the  firm  foundation 
which  was  now  laid — viz.,  the  national  consciousness 
of  right  and  wrong.  Declaring  that  religion  should  no 
longer  be  proscribed,  but  protected,  he  reiterated  the 
solemn  promise  that  worship  should  be  free  in  France. 
In  his  peroration  he  called  for  the  restoration  of  all 
the  outward  symbols  of  faith,  including  the  church 
bell.  These,  he  declared,  spoke  to  the  popular  heart 
and  evoked  the  noblest  sentiments  of  mankind.  The 
step  actually  taken  in  consequence  of  his  plea  was  to 
abrogate  all  the  penal  laws  against  the  clergy  and  re- 
store them  to  citizenship  without  exacting  any  decla- 
^  Moniteur,  June  twenty-second,  1797.  (An  V.,  Nos.  274  and  275.) 


230       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


ration  of  conformity  to  the  law  of  Prairial.  It  was 
held  that  because  the  priests  were  no  longer  function- 
aries paid  by  the  state  they  were  not  bound  to  measures 
not  applicable  to  all  citizens. 

This  remarkable  result  was,  however,  achieved  in 
part  by  the  fire  and  eloquence  of  Royer-Collard.  His 
speech  was  doubly  interesting  because  he  already  pre- 
dicted that  for  the  restoration  of  public  order  some 
form  of  concordat  was  essential. 

The  prospects  for  true  reform  were  thus  most  prom- 
ising, but  once  more  the  good  work  was  undone  by  the 
incredible  temerity  of  the  intended  beneficiaries.  The 
proscribed  classes,  clerics  and  laics,  reappeared,  as  has 
been  previously  noted,  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands. They  were  not  content  to  live  unmolested,  but 
pushed  the  fact  of  their  return  into  public  notice  by 
every  form  of  efifrontery — vaporing,  boasting  of  their 
intentions,  and  even  announcing  the  return  of  the  Bour- 
bons with  the  old  system.  The  White  Terror,  although 
elsewhere  the  excesses  were  not  comparable  to  it,  was 
only  one  exhibition  of  their  ferocity.  Thus  moderate 
republicans  and  royalists  were  alike  checkmated  in  the 
fulfilment  of  their  intentions;  the  radicals  secured  the 
ministry  by  the  violence  of  the  Ultramontanes,and  with 
the  aid  of  the  army — an  army  now  commanded  not  by 
Bonaparte,  but  by  his  lieutenant,  the  fiery  Augereau — 
on  September  fourth,  1797  (18  Fructidor),  coerced  the 
two  houses  of  the  legislature.  Augereau  had  boasted, 
though  without  foundation,  that  he  was  sent  to  Paris  to 
*'kill  the  royalists."  There  may  have  been  a  grain  of 
truth  in  his  statement,  but  Bonaparte  always  practised 
a  specious  reserve  in  speaking  of  Fructidor.  In  view  of 
the  succeeding  events  and  the  work  of  the  18  Brumaire 
(November  ninth,  1799),  no  one  can  doubt  the  mea- 
sure of  his  foresight;  the  former  day,  however,  was 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  231 


the  victory  of  a  cause,  and  the  latter  was  the  victory 
of  the  man. 

The  rehgious  consequences  of  Fructidor  were  imme- 
diate.^ The  legislature  reenacted  the  terrorist  laws, 
and  demanded  from  all  officiating  ministers  an  oath  still 
more  radical  than  the  last — "Hatred  to  royalty  and 
anarchy,  attachment  and  fidelity  to  the  republic  and  to 
the  constitution  of  the  year  III."  This  oath  the  juror 
priests  could  easily  take,  for  to  them  royalty  was  a 
monstrosity;  but  the  nonjurors,  almost  to  a  man,  re- 
coiled. A  certain  number  of  the  recusants,  perhaps  a 
majority,  finally  yielded.  This  was  due  to  an  official 
declaration  plausibly  representing  that  in  the  language 
of  the  oath  there  was  no  reflection  on  the  person  of 
kings ;  this  must  be  so,  for  the  republic  was  constantly 
transacting  business  with  them ;  the  words  were  aimed 
against  the  reestablishment  of  royalty  and  monarchical 
government  in  France.^ 

But  compliance  was  of  no  avail ;  the  motto  of  the 
Fructidorians  was  'Thorough."  Encouraged  by  the 
turn  of  the  weathercock  at  Paris,  Jacobin  demagogues 
at  once  came  out  of  their  burrows  in  every  district  of 
France.  The  rural  governments,  based  on  popular 
choice,  were  overthrown;  elections  were  either  can- 
celled or  suspended ;  the  primaries  were  by  subdivision 
adroitly  surrendered  into  Jacobin  hands;  the  radicals 
seized  every  office.  The  proscription  of  religion  ad- 
vanced with  equal  step,  and  this  time  priests  were  ar- 
rested, imprisoned,  and  transported,  not  under  the  stan- 
dard charge  of  being  traitors  to  the  state,  but  avowedly 
as  the  agents  of  an  abhorrent  superstition.  The  guil- 
lotine was  not  set  up  again,  but  the  church  bell  was 

^  Mallet  du  Pan.  Memoires  et  lessly  forced  on  all  the  depu- 

Correspondance,  II.  320  ct  scq.  ties,  see  the  Moniteur,  Septem- 

■  For  an  idea  of  how  the  oath  her  fourteenth,  1797.    (An  V., 

of  haired,  to  royalty  was  ruth-  No,  357.) 


232       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


once  more  prohibited;  the  celebration  of  Sunday  as  a 
holy  day  was  made  almost  impossible  by  the  pains  of 
persecution;  the  celebration  of  the  Decadi  as  a  reli- 
gious festival  was  pronounced  imperative,  and  recalci- 
trants were  arrested  by  hundreds  upon  hundreds.  The 
most  refractory  of  the  priests  were  treated  like  crimi- 
nals, and  sent  in  shoals  to  the  penal  establishments  at 
Oleron,  Rhe,  and  Mont-Saint-Michel ;  the  overflow  of 
these  jails  was  banished  to  the  torrid  shores  of  the  Sin- 
namari,  a  fate  worse  than  death,  because  (and  this  is 
but  one  example  out  of  many)  from  a  single  consign- 
ment of  exiles,  between  four  and  five  hundred  in  num- 
ber, only  twenty  survived  their  cruel  sufferings  for  six 
months.  This  death-rate  was  not  exceptional  in  simi- 
lar instances. 

The  most  impenitent  advocates  of  what  they  them- 
selves persistently  styled  tolerance  and  philosophy  had 
by  this  time  realized  what  they  had  already  feared — 
that  in  religion,  as  in  physics,  nature  abhors  a  vacuum. 
Accordingly,  they  made  ready  to  bring  into  full  promi- 
nence what  was  already  prepared  in  theory,  the  fledg- 
ling sect  of  Theophilanthropy.  They  acted  vigorously, 
with  a  view  to  substituting  that  strange  congeries  of 
dogma  and  ritual  in  place  of  Roman  Catholicism  as  a 
state  religion.  In  their  opinion  there  was  urgent  need. 
Thirty-two  thousand  churches,  as  estimated  by  Gre- 
goire,  were  open  for  worship.  The  ministers  were  in 
part  the  old  Constitutionals,  in  part  the  new  conform- 
ists. But  far  and  near  worship  was  celebrated  in  one 
way  and  another.  Moreover,  the  Constitutional  bishops 
had  entered  on  a  path  of  moderation  and  wisdom,  sug- 
gesting methods  of  organization  and  procedure  for  the 
Gallican  Church  which  it  now  seems,  and  seemed  to 
some  of  their  contemporary  opponents,  should  have  ap- 
pealed to  every  right-minded  Roman  Catholic.  They 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  233 


had  issued  two  important  and  sensible  encyclicals ;  then, 
assembling  in  a  national  ecclesiastical  council  at  Notre 
Dame,  they  likewise  addressed  Pius  VL,  begging  for 
his  assistance  and  advice.  To  their  prayer  his  ear  was 
deaf.  Equally  so  were  the  mass  of  nonjuror  brethren 
to  whom  they  turned  beseechingly  for  reconciliation 
and  harmony.  For  the  most  part  the  initiative  and 
form  of  these  measures  were  the  work  of  Gregoire. 

Due  tribute  must  be  paid  to  both  branches  of  the 
Roman  Church  during  the  closing  years  of  the  revolu- 
tionary epoch,  at  least  for  sincerity  and  perseverance, 
if  not  for  wisdom.  Both  were  fearless  and  both  de- 
sired the  welfare  of  true  religion.  The  Ultramontanes 
suffered  persecution  and  martyrdom  like  saints,  sacri- 
ficed all  worldly  advantage  with  true  heroism,  and 
neglected  not  a  single  opportunity,  even  the  most  trou- 
blesome or  secret,  to  observe  their  ordinances  and  cele- 
brate their  worship,  in  the  teeth  of  an  opposition  which 
was  fanatical  and  terrible.  They  retained  some  form 
of  organization  throughout;  with  full  liberty  they 
would  have  been  completely  successful.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Constitutionals  avowed  their  devotion  to  re- 
publican institutions  and  sought  the  restoration  of  reli- 
gion in  consonance  with  them.  They  were  no  less 
zealous  and  self-sacrificing.  They  were  glad  to  be 
freed  from  state  control  and  state  support.  They  like- 
wise renounced  papal  supremacy  as  a  binding  dogma, 
and  instituted  a  semi-presbyterian  form  of  organiza- 
tion. The  faith  of  their  adherents  was  kept  alive  and 
fervent  by  frequent  revivals.  Their  able  journal  ("An- 
nales  de  la  Religion")  secured  unity  of  thought  and 
action;  the  clergy  and  laity  alike  inculcated  and  prac- 
tised a  strict  morality.  The  clergy  were  simply  inde- 
fatigable ;  with  scarcely  an  exception,  they  lived  meanly 
and  practised  a  rigid  economy.    A  typical  example  of 


234       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


this  is  a  touching  incident,  told  by  various  authors,  of 
how,  when  a  venerable  priest  was  found  mending  his 
old  black  stockings  with  white  thread,  and  rallied  upon 
the  fact,  he  could  see  nothing  extraordinary  or  curious 
in  his  expedient.  Like  their  refractory  brethren  of  the 
Roman  cult,  the  juror  priests  neglected  no  opportunity 
for  public  worship  or  pastoral  service,  baptizing  chil- 
dren, performing  marriage  ceremonies,  and  burying 
the  dead,  all  with  courageous  defiance  of  every  petty 
annoyance  and  public  opposition. 

In  the  council  of  1797  the  Constitutionals,  as  they  still 
were  called,  though  of  course  the  Civil  Constitution 
was  no  longer  operative,  took  the  last  step  of  reform. 
They  reorganized  their  church  on  the  basis  of  a  com- 
plete voluntary  system  under  the  law  of  Ventose.  With 
the  broadest  charity,  they  recognized  the  standing  of 
every  minister,  no  difference  what  his  attitude  toward 
public  questions  had  been  in  the  past.  Deploring 
schism,  they  called  on  the  Pope  to  confirm  them  in  their 
assertion  that  the  briefs  of  1790,  1791,  and  1792  had 
been  apocryphal,  and  promised  in  advance  to  submit 
themselves  to  the  decrees  of  an  ecumenical  council, 
which  they  begged  him  to  call  right  speedily.  In  a 
second  council,  assembled  in  1801,  they  went  further, 
and  made  careful  preparation  for  a  complete  reorgani- 
zation of  the  entire  Gallican  Church  on  the  broadest 
lines.  In  1798  there  were  forty-six  of  the  Constitu- 
tional bishoprics  vacant.  By  herculean  efforts  all  but 
fifteen  of  these  were  quickly  filled.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
fragmentary  organization  might  be  completed,  but  the 
Concordat  cut  short  the  labors  of  this  council  almost 
before  they  were  inaugurated. 

To  us  it  appears  that  the  bitter  antagonism  between 
the  two  warring  camps,  each  claiming  to  be  soldiers 
of  the  cross,  ought  in  this  period  to  have  been  obliter- 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  235 


ated  before  a  common  foe.  France  was  utterly  demor- 
alized. A  mad  passion  for  pleasure  now  dominated 
society.  Every  vice  was  rampant.  The  family  as  an 
institution  was  almost  disintegrated  under  the  law  of 
marriage  and  divorce.  Designing  infidels  had  con- 
vinced the  masses  that,  like  spurious  ecclesiasticism, 
Christianity  itself  was  incompatible  with  democracy. 
The  papacy,  alas!  was  impotent.  Pius  VL  was  per- 
sonally an  excellent  man.  He  was  the  representative 
of  a  power  ostensibly  moral,  but,  if  so,  strangely  sapped 
by  the  decay  of  its  temporalities ;  the  foundation  of 
sand  was  slipping  away,  the  edifice  itself  was  crum- 
bling before  an  implacable  foe,  and  the  spiritual  forces 
inherent  in  the  ancient  institution  could  not  be  rallied 
either  to  moderate  the  implacable  or  to  stimulate  the 
wavering. 

Meantime  the  secular  authorities  were  busy  adopting 
and  enforcing  stringent  regulations  for  the  observance 
of  the  Decadi  by  cessation  from  w^ork  and  trade,  and 
for  the  relegation  of  Sunday  to  labor  or  amusement. 
The  decrees  were  as  stringent  as  they  could  be  drawn. 
By  those  of  August  and  September,  1798,  business, 
public  and  private,  could  not  be  transacted  on  the  De- 
cadis.  In  the  public  hall  or  church  the  magistrates  were 
on  those  days  to  make  all  official  announcements,  cele- 
brate marriages,  grant  divorces,  and  register  births  and 
deaths.  All  school-children  were  to  attend  these  edi- 
fying exercises,  and,  as  a  relief  from  the  tedium,  they 
were  to  have  games  and  sports  thereafter.  If  any  pre- 
ferred the  ceremonies  of  the  church,  they  were  de- 
nounced as  so  far  unfaithful  to  the  republic,  and  a 
strict  watch  was  kept  on  all  who  were  irregular  in 
attending  the  official  secular  meetings.  The  nonjurors 
proved  utterly  recalcitrant;  the  former  Constitutionals 
complied  occasionally,  through  fear,  but  in  the  main 


236       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


they,  too,  disobeyed.  Gregoire  denounced  these  de- 
crees from  his  seat  in  the  hall  of  the  Five  Hundred  (or 
lower  house)  in  a  fierce  arraignment  of  the  public  good 
faith,  for  he  recalled  that  the  new  calendar  had  been 
adopted  purely  as  a  civil  matter.  All  efforts,  there- 
fore, to  enforce  it  as  a  part  of  religion  and  to  discour- 
age Christian  worship  on  the  regular  day  were  clearly 
an  attempt  to  treat  one,  and  only  one,  religious  society 
as  an  exception.  His  sentiments  were  applauded  by 
all  Christians.  To  those  who  were  bent  on  the  com- 
plete ''laicization"  of  France  it  was  plain  that  threats 
and  blandishments  were  alike  ineffective.  For  the  mo- 
ment the  two  warring  camps  of  Roman  Catholics  were 
firmly  united  in  a  common  resistance.  There  were 
now  only  two  political  parties,  and  it  was  disastrous 
that  at  bottom  royalists  and  republicans  were  separated 
by  the  religious  question.  The  former  adopted  as  their 
battle-cry:  'The  king  and  religion." 

A  phenomenon  so  strange  quickly  and  easily  brought 
the  theophilanthropists  into  temporary  prominence; 
this  was  exactly  the  crisis  they  desired ;  for  they  alone, 
it  was  claimed,  repeated,  and  asseverated,  could  abolish 
Sunday  by  substituting  for  the  dry  and  meaningless 
harangues  or  proclamations  of  laws  by  which  the  Deca- 
dis  had  hitherto  been  and  still  were  to  be  celebrated, 
a  veritable  religious  observance  from  which  no  man, 
not  even  the  atheists,  should  be  excluded.  The  amaz- 
ing and  preposterous  monstrosity  of  Theophilanthropy, 
which  was  to  work  this  miracle,  is  traceable  to  the 
deism  of  Robespierre.  Its  parent  mind  was  that  of  a 
wild  enthusiast  named  d' Aubermenil ;  its  sponsors  were 
a  number  of  apostate  priests,  and  its  promulgator  was 
a  certain  hack-writer  named  Chemin.  Only  a  few  men 
of  eminence  were  associated  with  it — Dupont  de  Ne- 
mours, Marie  Joseph  Chenier,  Bernardin  de  Saint- 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  237 


Pierre,  and  the  painter  David.  Two  others  of  less  note, 
Roederer  and  La  RevelHere-Lepeaux,  were  its  active 
supporters.  Its  official  publications  were  a  manual,  a 
ritual,  a  religious  year-book,  and  some  volumes  of 
moral  platitudes.^ 

The  official  style  of  the  religious  invention  was  ''In- 
stitute of  Morals."  It  was  professedly  organized  to 
comprehend  all  that  was  oldest  and  best  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  On  the  feast  day  of  Tolerance  its  devo- 
tees marched  under  banners  inscribed  with  the  names 
of  all  preexistent  religions,  including  one  that  never 
had  existed,  a  cult  consecrated  to  morality.  Their 
first  formal  act  was  to  hold  a  council  in  Xotre  Dame ; 
the  second  was  a  schism,  for  a  body  of  the  original 
founders  seceded,  and,  holding  its  sessions  in  the 
Church  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  denied  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  parent  assembly. 

Both  sects,  howe\'er,  used  the  same  ceremonies  when 
met  for  the  observance  of  the  Decadis.  In  all  their 
ordinances  the  directing  high  priest  was  the  notorious 
busybody,  the  absurd  member  of  the  Directory  named 
La  Revelliere-Lepeaux.  He  himself  had  no  distinctive 
garb,  and  remained  generally  in  the  background.  His 
assistants,  however,  had  beautiful  regalia.  The  offi- 
ciating director  of  each  local  celebration  was  clad  in 
white,  with  a  rose-colored  girdle.    He  stood  on  a  dais, 


^  The  original  authority  on 
Theophilanthropy  is  a  short 
treatise  by  Gregoire,  published 
originally  in  German :  Ge- 
schichte  des  Theophilanthropis- 
mus.  Hanover.  1806.  See  also 
Mallet  du  Pan.  Correspon- 
dance.  II.  368.  and  Moniteur. 
An  v.,  9  Floreal.  The  notice 
in  the  Moniteur  declares  that 
Theophilanthropy  is  not  a  sect, 
since  it  neither  denies  nor  ab- 


jures the  principles  of  any  one! 
Mallet,  p.  369.  also  notices  a 
poster  with  which  the  walls  of 
Paris  were  placarded  by  per- 
mission of  the  police,  begin- 
ning. "Les  hommes  sans  Dieu 
professent  un  culte :  la  vertu 
seule  en  sera  I'objet."  He  asks, 
with  great  pregnancy  of  mean- 
ing. "Could  other  powers  make 
a  treaty  with  such  a  govern- 
ment?" 


238        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


with  bared  head,  opposite  an  altar  ornamented  with 
fruits  or  flowers,  according  to  the  season.  Reciting 
an  invocation,  he  paused,  and  the  worshippers  repeated 
his  words  in  a  low  tone;  then  followed  a  moment  of 
silent  cross-examination.  Thereupon  one  short  hom- 
ily after  another  was  read  or  delivered,  each  on  some 
topic  of  a  moral  nature.  These  were  interspersed  with 
hymns  and  chants,  for  the  most  part  of  high  artistic 
character  both  as  to  words  and  music.  There  followed 
a  number  of  prayers  to  the  god  of  nature.  The  exer- 
cise was  in  each  case  limited  to  an  hour  and  a  half. 

Special  services  were  devised  for  consecrating  in- 
fants, for  funerals,  and  for  marriages.  In  these  last 
the  pair  used  a  ring,  with  a  medal  as  a  token  of  union, 
and  were  bound  together  by  enfolding  floral  garlands ; 
at  interments  a  funeral  urn,  set  beneath  drooping  palms, 
was  the  centre  of  interest;  the  corpse  was  kept  else- 
where out  of  view.  The  high  holidays,  set  apart  for 
general  observance,  were  in  honor  of  Socrates,  Rous- 
seau, Washington,  and  St.  Vincent  de  Paul !  Such  ab- 
surdities as  these  were  little  regarded  beyond  the  walls 
of  Paris ;  the  only  successes  of  Theophilanthropy  without 
the  capital  were  in  Bourges,  Poitiers,  and  the  depart- 
ment of  the  Yonne.  The  sect  had  an  unhonored  career 
and  a  short  shrift,  for  in  1801  the  use  of  churches  was 
forbidden  to  it,  and  on  the  withdrawal  of  government 
sanction  the  clumsy  system  came  to  an  end.  During 
its  existence  the  so-called  services  might  be  held,  and 
sometimes  were  held,  in  a  church  on  the  same  day 
as  Christian  worship,  provided,  as  often  happened,  that 
Decadi  and  Sunday  fell  together.  Thus,  in  the  same 
building  on  the  same  day  would  be  three  celebrations — 
that  of  mass  in  the  morning,  of  the  governmental 
Decadi  service  at  noon,  and  of  the  theophilanthropists 
in  the  afternoon.    Absurdity  could  go  no  further. 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  239 


The  general  religious  disorder  was  not  relieved  by  a 
single  focus  of  living  force ;  there  was  not  one  fulcrum 
for  the  leverage  of  constructive  power.  Protestantism 
was  scarcely  alive.  Paul  Rabaud  died  in  1795,  under 
the  weight  of  years  and  suffering;  of  the  pastors  who 
had  seen  the  opening  of  the  Revolution  but  a  handful 
of  exhausted,  discouraged  men  was  left.  The  ranks  of 
the  laity  had  been  continuously  decimated  by  shameful 
apostacies,  for  the  deism  of  England  and  Germany  had 
reacted  on  them  and  sapped  their  faith.  The  Re- 
formed Church  knew  nothing  of  the  throes  which  shook 
Roman  Catholicism,  for  after  the  action  of  the  Con- 
stituent it  was  free;  yet,  almost  the  only  faithful  were 
either  the  plain  people  in  towns  like  Nimes  and  Mon- 
tauban,  who  retorted  on  the  violence  of  radicals  and 
Catholics  with  blow  for  blow,  or  else  the  moderate  and 
timid  of  the  middle  class,  who  nourished  their  faith  in 
secret  and  took  refuge  from  trouble  behind  an  outward 
conformity.  During  the  orgies  of  Hebert  and  Chau- 
mette  in  honor  of  Reason  the  Protestants,  like  all  Chris- 
tians, w^ere  persecuted  and  terrorized.  Many  aban- 
doned their  faith  and  cause.  The  organization  of  the 
church  was  substantially  destroyed.  Spasmodic  efforts 
to  reconstitute  the  Protestant  congregations  were  made 
under  the  Directory,  and  in  some  cases  they  met  with 
success.  It  may  possibly  be  said  that  there  actually 
was  an  organized  Protestant  church  when  the  Con- 
sulate came  into  existence,  but  it  could  barely  maintain 
itself,  and  played  no  decisive  role  in  religious  aft'airs. 
Its  seminaries  were  closed,  its  people  disheartened,  its 
pastors  dismayed,  its  voice  almost  hushed.^ 

The  complete  disintegration  of  religious  society  was 

^  G.  de  Felice.  Histoire  des  completely  absorbed  in  the  lib- 
Protestants  de  France,  p.  568.  eral  ranks.  See  his  speech, 
Boulay  de  U  Meurthe  spoke  of  quoted  in  Aulard,  Histoire 
the  Protestants  as  having  been  Politique,  etc.,  p.  649. 


240       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


reflected  in  the  confusion  of  French  Hfe,  social,  civil, 
political,  and  even  military;  for  the  army,  as  reorgan- 
ized under  the  republic,  was  in  a  high  sense  national. 
The  contentiousness  of  theFructidorians  was  a  fatuous, 
but  a  fierce  imitation  of  the  wild  savagery  displayed  by 
the  conventionals.  After  Prairial  the  Five  Hundred 
restored  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  under  the 
name  of  a  "Commission  of  Eleven,"  authorized  domi- 
ciliary visits,  and,  in  view  of  the  now  imminent  inva- 
sion of  France,  decreed  the  ''levee  en  masse,"  that 
every  able-bodied  man  could  be  drafted  into  the  army. 
To  provide  funds  the  "class  in  easy  circumstances"  was 
summoned  to  furnish  a  hundred  million  francs,  and 
the  money  was  collected  by  a  progressive  land  tax.  To 
check  the  brutal  excesses  of  the  royalists  there  was  en- 
acted a  hideous  law,  known  as  the  law  of  hostages, 
whereby  in  every  troublesome  district  all  the  relatives, 
male  and  female,  of  emigrants,  nobles,  and  rebels  were 
to  be  held  as  hostages ;  at  every  outbreak  of  the  family 
culprit  the  entire  body  of  hostages  was  to  contribute 
five  thousand  francs  as  a  fine,  and  four  individuals  were 
to  be  deported.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  deporta- 
tion was  now  a  horror  so  well  recognized  that  in  com- 
mon parlance  it  was  known  as  "the  dry  guillotine." 

Of  course  such  frightful  severity  defeated  itself.  The 
"red  spectre"  of  Jacobinism  was  not  slow  to  reappear. 
Evading  the  laws  against  political  associations,  a  so- 
called  Jacobin  club  was  formed.  The  members  were 
avowed  communists  and  anarchists,  to  such  extremes 
had  persecution  driven  them,  and  the  government  was 
forced  to  close  their  rooms  after  they  had  been  in  ex- 
istence for  something  over  a  month.  Of  the  royalist 
outbursts  we  have  spoken  in  another  connection.  The 
law  of  hostages  did  not  diminish  them.  Brittany,  Poi- 
tou,  and  Normandy  were  almost  as  troublesome  as  the 


ULTRAMONTANE  FOLLY  241 


south,  and  at  Bordeaux  the  most  formidable  of  all  the 
uprisings  openly  shouted  the  significant  watchword  of 
"The  king  and  religion."  To  such  a  pass  had  matters 
come — danger  from  without,  anarchy  within — that  the 
multitudes  longed  for  a  deliverer.  The  circumstances 
which  caused  utter  confusion  both  in  religion  and  in 
politics  were  simultaneous  and  seemed  to  the  million 
identical.  The  most  dangerous  of  all  shallow  conclu- 
sions had  been  slowly  forced  on  all  Frenchmen  except 
the  few — to  wit,  that  political  reaction  could  alone  save 
the  cause  of  religion. 

It  is  impossible  to  foresee  what  might  other,wise  have 
happened;  but  at  this  particular  juncture  the  overpow- 
ering fact  was  Bonaparte's  return  from  Egypt.  Here 
was  a  deliverer.  His  prestige  as  regards  the  Egyptian 
campaign  was  enormously  inflated.  But  at  least,  even 
though  the  turn  had  come  and  the  French  arms  were 
already  winning  some  victories,  there  was  still  a 
marked  contrast  between  the  reputed  oriental  con- 
queror and  the  discredited  men  of  the  Directory.  More- 
over, his  relations  to  the  papacy  were  in  vivid  contrast 
to  theirs.  Bonaparte's  Italian  campaign  had  been  di- 
rected against  Austria.  In  his  successes  the  Directory 
saw  an  opportunity  to  destroy  the  papacy.  The  young 
general,  on  the  other  hand,  was  mainly  actuated  by 
strategic  considerations,  a  desire  to  leave  no  powerful 
foe  on  his  flanks  as  he  pressed  on  to  the  northeast ;  he 
therefore  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  central  and 
south  Italian  states,  including  the  papal  power,  with 
that  single  object  well  in  view.  The  armistice  of  Bo- 
logna (1796)  was  denounced  when  Pius  VI.  refused 
the  terms  of  the  Directory,  but  Bonaparte,  on  his  own 
authority,  renewed  the  negotiations  through  Mattei. 
The  treaty  of  Tolentino  (February  nineteenth,  1797), 
though  it  stripped  the  papacy  of  its  territorial  strength 


242        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


and  its  wealth,  left  the  Pope  a  free  agent  to  keep  the 
implied  promise  he  made  that  some  arrangement  be- 
tween the  two  factions  of  the  French  Romanists  and 
the  republic  in  France  should  be  considered  and  ma- 
tured when  the  time  was  ripe ;  that  social  order  should 
be  restored,  and  the  scandals  of  wide-spread  debauchery 
banished  by  a  renewed  combination  of  the  spiritual 
and  secular  powers.  On  August  third,  1797,  Bona- 
parte outlined  the  policy  of  renewing  the  Corcordat  in 
some  form  by  a  letter  addressed  to  Caleppi,  the  papal 
legate  at  Florence.  It  was  assuredly  no  work  oi  Bona- 
parte's which,  during  his  absence  in  Egypt,  fomented 
revolutionary  violence  at  Rome  and  compelled  the  de- 
portation to  France  of  Pius  VI.  The  aged  prelate 
did  not  long  survive  the  sorrow.  He  died  a  prisoner 
in  Valence,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two,  on  August  twenty- 
ninth,  1799.  For  this  shameful  treatment  of  a  harm- 
less old  man  the  Directory  bears  the  blame  entire. 


XIV 


DESIGN  AND   FORM  OF  THE 
CONCORDAT 


XIV 


DESIGN  AND  FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT 

THE  Day  of  Brumaire  i8,  year  VIII.  (November 
ninth,  1799)  did  not  differ  from  its  parent  Days 
in  motive  and  execution.  Once  again  an  intolerable 
government  came  to  an  end  by  the  use  of  military 
force.  But  this  time  the  army  had  not  many  masters ; 
it  had  only  one,  a  favorite  young  general  who  was  at 
the  same  time  a  national  hero.  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
did  not  secure  the  chieftaincy  of  France  at  thirty  be- 
cause of  his  proven  capacities,  but  because  the  nation 
believed  itself  in  urgent  need  of  him.  Brumaire  exem- 
plified contempt  for  law  under  the  shallowest  pretence 
of  observing  legal  forms.  There  was  no  concealment 
of  this  fact,  and  in  a  high  degree  France  was  as- 
tounded. 

But  her  astonishment  indicated  relief  and  not  indig- 
nation. Any  change  directed  by  an  effective  power 
would  be  an  improvement,  for  under  the  conditions 
prevalent  since  Fructidor  France  had  sounded  the 
depths  of  feebleness,  and  consequently  of  social  disin- 
tegration and  degradation.  There  had  been  during 
that  period  an  average  of  one  divorce  for  every  eleven 
marriages ;  whether  a  child  were  legitimate  or  not  was 
to  many  minds  a  matter  of  indifference,  for  some 
thought  civil  marriage  sufficient,  some  were  content 
with  the' marriages  of  the  Constitutionals,  some  only 
with  those  of  the  nonjuring  refractories.  Thousands 

245 


246        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


were  united  only  in  Theophilanthropy,  and  other  thou- 
sands were  utterly  indifferent  to  marriage  in  any  form ; 
Paris  and  the  great  towns  were  almost  brothels,  and 
the  Palais  Royal,  then  the  very  heart  of  the  capi- 
tal, was  one  vast  exchange  for  all  the  known  forms  of 
vice.  The  validity  of  land  sales  and  business  trans- 
actions of  every  sort  was  constantly  in  question,  for 
the  future  still  hung  in  the  balance;  the  law  was  un- 
certain and  courts  were  venal.  State  and  family  being 
therefore  menaced  at  every  point,  and  the  ecclesias- 
tical situation  being  such  as  has  been  already  outlined, 
things  could  not  be  worse ;  they  must  grow  better. 

The  provisional  Consulate  had  no  sooner  come  into 
existence  than  evidence  of  this  conviction  accumulated 
in  every  direction.  A  heavy  hand  was  laid,  wherever 
it  was  possible,  on  all  violations  of  public  decency,  and 
on  such  practices  as  could  not  be  instantly  checked 
enormous  contributions  were  levied.  The  fear  of  a 
tried  army,  loyal  to  a  single  man,  and  of  a  semi-mili- 
tary police  weighed  upon  the  spirits  of  the  malefactors. 
The  administration  of  justice,  civil  and  criminal  alike, 
was  momentarily  changed  as  if  by  magic;  business 
revived,  and  the  public  credit  rose  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
In  less  than  two  months  three  peremptory  decrees  were 
issued  by  the  provisional  Consulate  which  overturned 
all  compulsory  legislation  regarding  the  offensive  De- 
cadis,  substituted  a  mere  promise  of  fidelity  to  the  con- 
stitution for  the  odious  oath  of  hatred  to  royalty  so  far 
required  of  all  officiating  priests,  and  enjoined  on  all 
magistrates  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  securing  free- 
dom of  religious  worship.  Almost  as  a  matter  of 
course  such  churches  as  had  not  been  sold  were  re- 
opened for  services,  and  the  ashes  of  Pius  VI.  were 
decently  interred  with  the  splendid  ritual  of  the  Roman 
Church. 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  247 


The  work  of  seven  lean  years — years  of  violent  over- 
turnings,  of  confiscations,  of  social  devolution,  of  reli- 
gious persecution,  of  political  anarchy  and  chaos — 
seemed  already  to  the  great  masses  of  the  French  to 
have  been  undone  effectually  and  permanently.  For 
years  Bonaparte  had  been  discussing  with  Sieyes  and 
other  political  philosophers  the  nature  of  constitu- 
tions. From  their  thoughts  and  his  own  he  had 
evolved  a  charter  which  w^as  not  only  novel  and  origi- 
nal, as  he  and  the  devotees  of  his  cause  believed,  but  a 
panacea  for  the  troubles  of  French  democracy.  When 
the  Constitution  of  the  Year  VIII.  was  promulgated, 
cumbrous,  complex,  and  absurd  as  it  is,  a  worried,  har- 
ried, superficial  people  hailed  it  as  a  wonder,  and  ac- 
cepted it  but  too  gladly.  At  least  it  guaranteed  the 
achievements  of  the  Revolution  regarding  civil  liberty, 
and  it  was  self-evident  that  religious  liberty  in  some 
degree  would  be  secure  under  its  aegis.  To  its  utter 
disregard  of  political  liberty  only  a  few  thoughtful  and 
patriotic  men  gave  serious  heed. 

Now  religious  liberty  was  no  better  understood  in 
France  on  the  fall  of  the  contemptible  Directory  than 
it  had  been  by  the  enlightened  and  generous  Constitu- 
ent Assembly.  The  various  points  of  view  still  held 
were  much  what  they  had  always  been.  The  only  per- 
ceptible change  was  in  the  readjustment  of  the  num- 
bers wdio  supported  them.  The  great  mass  of  the 
French  people  appeared,  in  its  latest  adjustment  and 
in  spite  of  all  vicissitudes,  to  be  absolutely  unchanged, 
for  thousands  had  reverted  to  the  French  tradition  of 
thirteen  hundred  years — viz.,  that  all  ecclesiastical  le- 
gitimacy lay  in  the  spiritual  mission  of  the  Pope  and 
in  the  canonical  institution  of  all  ministers  through 
him.  These  were  of  course  ecclesiastical  aristocrats  in 
a  sense,  because,  in  order  to  secure  what  they  likewise 


248        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


firmly  held  as  a  part  of  French  tradition,  namely,  the 
dependency  of  the  ecclesiastical  on  the  secular  author- 
ity, they  considered  popular  election  abominable  and 
the  appointing  power  to  be  just  as  inherent  in  the  state 
as  investiture  was  in  the  papacy. 

These  conservatives  enjoyed  the  hearty  support  not 
merely  of  those  who  had  religious  convictions  identical 
with  theirs,  but  likewise  of  a  powerful  royalist  party 
which  was  secretly  agitating,  if  not  for  the  restoration 
of  the  Bourbons,  at  least  for  the  establishment  of  mon- 
archy in  some  form.  The  Constitutionals,  no  longer 
so  in  reality,  but  still  designated  by  the  well-worn  term, 
were,  on  the  other  hand,  evangelistic  and  consequently 
democratic  to  the  core ;  they  relished  the  oath  of  hatred 
to  royalty,  and  believed  both  in  the  popular  choice  of 
ministers  and  in  qualified  Presbyterianism  as  a  form  of 
church  polity.  But  they  were  Roman  Catholics  nev- 
ertheless; their  last  official  utterance  was  an  invoca- 
tion to  the  Pope  for  unity  in  the  Catholic,  Apostolic, 
Roman  Church,  a  call  for  canonical  mission  as  a  con- 
dition precedent  to  the  ministerial  service  and  an  ex- 
pression of  willingness  to  accept  the  authority  of  non- 
juring  bishops  and  priests  consecrated  before  1791, 
provided  only  that  the  incumbent  already  inducted 
under  the  Civil  Constitution  should  have  the  succession 
in  of^ice.^  They  deplored  the  existence  of  schism,  and 
vainly  entreated  Pius  to  heal  the  breach.  There  are 
no  trustworthy  statistics  as  to  their  numbers,^  but  prob- 
ably their  adherents  included  a  third  of  the  professed 
Catholics.  Of  fifteen  churches  open  for  worship  in 
Paris,  they  occupied  five. 


^  Annales  de  la  Religion,  V. 
524.  Theiner,  Doc.  Ined.,  I. 
463- 

^  These  very  uncertain  ap- 
proximations are  based  solely 
on  the  most  widely  conflicting 


claims  and  on  very  doubtful 
indications.  Gregoire,  Me- 
moires,  II.  94,  claimed  the  ma- 
jority of  the  faithful  as  ad- 
herents of  the  Constitutional 
Church. 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  249 


Likewise,  there  was  still  the  small  body,  also  in- 
determinate, of  the  Freethinkers,  as  they  came  to  be 
styled,  of  those  who  were  Protestants  at  heart  and  of 
the  Jews ;  these  were,  all  told,  perhaps  five  per  cent,  of 
the  nation.  What  they  lacked  in  numbers  they  sup- 
plied by  brains,  wit,  and  fiery  resolution.  They  ab- 
horred the  idea  of  another  bargain  with  the  now 
irregular  and  contemptible  papacy,  and  they  were  still 
in  high  places  where  they  could  make  their  abhorrence 
a  power  to  be  reckoned  with. 

Here,  then,  was  the  most  complicated  and  difficult 
problem  which  could  confront  a  budding  statesman. 
The  solution,  of  course,  turned  solely  on  the  question  of 
his  own  choice,  for  Bonaparte's  battalions  could  enforce 
his  will.  That  choice  was  determined  by  several  con- 
siderations. To  win  France  there  must  be  a  display  at 
least  of  moral  courage  as  well  as  of  military  force,  and 
to  that  end  it  was  well  discreetly  to  antagonize  all  par- 
ties ecclesiastical  as  well  as  political.  To  sustain  a 
power  once  won  a  chief  of  state  must  have  the  hearty 
support  not  of  hack  politicians  and  worn-out  partisans, 
but  of  the  vigorous  rising  stock  of  younger  Frenchmen. 
These  were  best  represented  by  Royer-Collard,  who 
had  announced  to  the  Five  Hundred  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  a  compact  between  the  religious  hierarchy,  which 
controlled  the  consciences  of  the  vast  number  of 
Frenchmen,  and  any  government  which  might  hope  to 
control  their  persons  and  estates. 

This  was  a  most  unpalatable  announcement  to  the 
French  liberals,  and  was,  moreover,  both  fallacious  and 
untrue.  But  it  represented  the  conviction  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole ;  government  must  either  support  or  destroy 
the  religious  confession  of  the  majority.  Reciprocity 
or  destruction.  The  various  governments  of  the  Revo- 
lution bad  refused  reciprocity ;  their  fate  was  well 
known.    One  thing  the  First  Consul  did — this  particu- 


250        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


lar  Scylla  he  avoided;  did  he  in  choosing  Royer-Col- 
lard's  alternative  fall  into  Charybdis  ?  Before  seeking 
an  answer  to  this  question  we  must  note  one  more  ele- 
ment in  Bonaparte's  choice  which  appeared  later — that 
wdiich  may  be  designated  the  international.  The  intes- 
tine disorders  of  France  once  regulated,  the  position  of 
her  ruler  in  relation  to  the  European  sovereigns  w^ould 
be  enormously  strengthened  by  the  support  of  the 
papacy,  especially  in  regard  to  her  nearest  neighbors — 
Spain,  Italy,  and  the  Empire.  These,  with  numerous 
minor  considerations,  such  as  speed,  instinctive  lean- 
ings, facility  of  ruse  in  prospective  negotiation,  deter- 
mined the  First  Consul's  choice. 

The  final  act,  therefore,  in  the  religious  history  of 
France  during  the  revolutionary  epoch  was  the  Con- 
cordat of  1801,  arranged  between  Bonaparte  and  Pius 
VII.,  a  treaty  which  still  seems  a  wonder  of  statesman- 
ship to  many,  for  it  held  good  under  the  Empire,  w^as 
overthrown,  then  reestablished,  and,  after  various  vi- 
cissitudes, w^as  incorporated  in  the  fundamental  law  of 
France,  remaining  operative  to  this  day  under  repub- 
lican government  substantially  as  it  was  finally  adopted 
under  a  monarchy.  Concerning  this  arrangement,  as 
might  be  expected,  two  antipodal  views  have  been  and 
still  are  held.  Some  see  in  it  a  stroke  of  imperial 
Napoleonic  policy — the  restoration  of  Christianity  and 
the  overthrow  of  infidelity  with  no  other  than  a  purely 
political  purpose — the  adroit  use  of  this  spiritual  tri- 
umph by  an  usurper  to  bolster  his  assumption  of  auto- 
cratic power,  the  return  for  this  end  to  a  system  which 
fifteen  years  earlier  was  already  an  anachronism.  The 
Concordat,  as  matters  have  arranged  themselves,  has 
enabled  the  church  to  crush  both  Gallicans  and  Jan- 
senists.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  its  abolition  would 
make  clericalism  triumphant. 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  251 


Others  uphold  the  Concordat  as  an  act  of  far-seeing 
statesmanship,  the  destruction  of  social  chaos  at  one 
blow,  the  restoration  of  religious  liberty  to  the  French 
in  a  form  suited  to  their  habits  and  convictions,  a 
wise  compromise  between  the  warring  factions  of  the 
church,  the  consequent  guarantee  of  religious  indepen- 
dence to  Protestants,  Jews,  and  Freethinkers. 

Both  views  disregard  the  most  important  element 
and  overlook  the  "organic  laws"  which  were  and  re- 
main part  and  parcel  of  the  system  inaugurated  by  the 
Concordat;  both  alike  mistake  the  historic  facts,  con- 
sidering the  radical  but  admirable  theory  of  a  free 
church  in  a  free  state  as  having  been  an  accomplished 
fact  undone  by  the  Concordat,  whereas,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  reality  behind  the  screen  of  theory  was  a 
tyrannical  persecution  practised  on  all  who  strove  to 
secure  the  exercise  of  religious  liberty  as  an  operative 
system.    Both,  therefore,  are  entirely  unhistorical. 

To  a  just  understanding  of  the  Concordat  of  1801  a 
general  view  of  ecclesiastical  conditions  at  that  time  is 
essential.  The  mediaeval  system  of  an  independent,  in- 
clusive church  organization,  enforcing  its  commands 
by  assistance  from  the  temporal  power,  was  represented 
and  upheld  by  the  orthodox  conservative  Romanists 
of  all  lands ;  they  regarded  the  church  as  the  source  of 
secular  power,  or  at  least  as  preexistent  to  all  secular 
power,  and  this  was  the  firm  conviction  of  at  least  a 
small  majority  of  Frenchmen.  Alone  among  the  na- 
tions of  Europe,  Spain  and  Italy  successfully  main- 
tained a  divine-right  political  system  and  unity  of  the 
faith  with  tolerance. 

The  French  monarchy  had  exerted  itself  to  the  ut- 
most in  behalf  of  this  theory.  But  it  had  failed  be- 
cause its  subjects  were  too  enlightened  to  accept  the 
doctrines-  taught  by  the  Casuists.    It  was  the  Casuists 


252        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


who  had  wrought  the  counter-Reformation  elsewhere  in 
Europe,  and  who  won  to  their  convictions  the  crown, 
the  higher  aristocracy,  and  the  prelacy  in  France.  But, 
as  we  have  seen  at  the  outset,  the  common  sense  of 
other  Frenchmen,  the  burghers,  the  lower  aristocracy, 
the  professional  classes,  and  the  lawyers  particularly, 
rejected  casuistry  with  disgust.  Some  of  these  men 
took  refuge  in  a  plain  biblical  ethic,  others  in  the  stern 
logic  of  the  Roman  law,  a  system  whose  precepts  had 
permeated  much  that  was  best  in  French  life. 

The  modified  system  of  tolerance  inaugurated  by 
what  is  called  the  age  of  enlightened  despotism  made 
the  sovereign  the  official  head  of  the  church  (Caesaro- 
papism)  both  in  Protestant  and  Catholic  countries. 
In  France,  Germany,  and  Austria  the  attempt  was  made 
to  establish  a  national  church,  with  local  organization 
and  liturgy,  Catholic  in  its  union  with  the  church  uni- 
versal, by  the  admission  of  spiritual  supremacy  as  resi- 
dent in  the  Pope,  and  by  a  common  faith.  The  practical 
workings  of  this  system,  however,  had  destroyed  eccle- 
siastical sovereignty  by  means  of  certain  rigid  restric- 
tions, under  which  alone  the  secular  power  enforced 
the  practice  of  religion  and  obedience  to  the  clergy. 
No  decision  could  be  published  without  secular  authori- 
zation (placet),  nor  executed  without  governmental 
confirmation  (exequatur) ,  and  lay  courts  could  reverse 
the  ecclesiastical  sentences  (recursus  ah  abusu).  This 
secular  control  was  further  extended  by  tolerating  any 
form  of  faith  and  worship  as  subordinate  to  the  state 
church,  or  even  still  further  enlarged  by  putting  sev- 
eral state  churches  on  a  parity. 

These  measures  really  turned  ecclesiastics  into  state 
officials.  They  were  selected  by  the  government,  and 
as  its  agents  only  held  and  retained  their  privileges — 
viz.,  precedence,  estates,  endowments,  special  taxation, 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  253 


freedom  from  military  service,  regulation  of  educa- 
tion, control  of  the  laity,  censorship  of  books,  regula- 
tion of  marriage,  and  the  right  to  record  vital  statis- 
tics. Such  was  the  system  for  which  Gallicans  and 
Jansenists  had  contended  in  France,  and  which  was 
still  supported  by  the  Constitutional  clergy  of  France; 
they  were  sustained  in  their  contention  by  a  large  mi- 
nority of  Frenchmen.  The  plan  was  substantially  that 
of  the  Reformation  in  Protestant  lands.  The  Revo- 
lution, however,  had  sought  utterly  to  ignore  the  eccle- 
siastical organization  in  all  lands,  to  withdraw  all  state 
support,  to  have  the  government  organize  and  control 
education,  to  secularize  all  ecclesiastical  estates,  to  de- 
stroy all  ecclesiastical  courts,  to  cancel  religious  vows, 
to  regulate  by  secular  legislation  the  laws  of  marriage, 
to  have  the  administration  keep  all  vital  statistics — in 
short,  absolutely  and  completely  to  separate  church 
and  state. 

Had  the  realization  of  this  revolutionary  ideal  been 
entrusted  to  the  friends  of  Christianity,  or  had  there 
been  in  France  any  truly  vigorous  body  of  conserva- 
tive religious  men  with  a  just  conception  of  the  prob- 
lem, true  progress  of  substantial  value  might  have  been 
made.  But  the  fanatical  radicals  who  agitated  in  favor 
of  ecclesiastical  freedom  had  not  the  vaguest  conception 
of  real  liberty,  either  political  or  religious.  Acting  in 
the  heathen  spirit  of  disdain  for  every  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, they  united  all  other  Frenchmen  against  them. 

Bonaparte  had  made  himself  the  man  of  the  hour; 
men  saw  him  in  the  glamour  produced  partly  by  the 
prodigies  of  his  military  success  and  partly  by  the  equal 
prodigy  of  his  political  skill  in  securing  and  holding  a 
non-partisan  attitude  at  Paris.  He  had  a  single  end  in 
view,  the  reunion  of  French  hearts  in  the  largest  pos- 
sible majority.    He  must  make  himself  indispensable 


254       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


to  France,  fulfil  her  hopes,  show  himself  the  promised 
saviour  of  society.  To  this  and  this  alone  he  was  for 
the  moment  devoted. 

Accordingly,  he  devised  a  compromise  between  the 
system  of  enlightened  despotism  and  that  of  the  ad- 
vanced Freethinkers.  The  law  he  framed  was  not  in 
any  sense,  however,  a  mere  social  convenience;  it  was 
a  foundation  stone  in  his  new  political  structure.  De- 
termined to  suppress  alike  the  White  and  the  Red 
Terror,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  he  aimed  to  re- 
store the  hierarchy  in  name  and  form,  but  in  so  doing 
he  intended  to  make  it  subject  to  the  secular  power 
without  reserve,  keeping  intact,  as  he  wished  men 
to  think,  both  the  immemorial  tradition  of  secular 
supremacy  and  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Revo- 
lution— absolute  religious  liberty  and  equality,  with- 
out leaving  a  shred  of  clerical  authority  or  a  vestige 
of  the  canon  law.  By  the  "organic  laws,"  with  which 
Pope  and  church  had  nothing  to  do,  and  which  he 
made  in  direct  contravention  of  canon  law,  he  regu- 
lated most  stringently  the  general  relations  of  the 
church  with  the  state  laws  and  the  police.  Under  these 
rigid  rules  the  secular  power  was  intended  to  be  su- 
preme, controlling  clerical  authority,  the  publication 
of  papal  decrees,  the  sending  of  nuncios,  the  holding 
of  councils,  the  creation  of  bishoprics  and  parishes, 
even  the  establishment  of  public  religious  festivals. 

This  is  the  point  to  which  attention  must  be  drawn 
in  considering  the  events  prior  to  the  reestablishment 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  France  under  the 
Concordat.  In  Italy,  Bonaparte  posed  as  an  orthodox 
Roman  Catholic  Christian,  in  Egypt  as  a  Moslem,  in 
France  as  a  radical ;  he  was  all  things  to  all  men.  He 
felt  the  mystery  of  religion  to  be  purely  social,  as  does 
the  advanced  liberal  theology  of  our  day.    These  are 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  255 


almost  his  ipsissima  verba.  He  dwelt  especially  on 
Christianity  as  an  equalizer,  and  preferred  its  Found- 
er's teachings  to  those  of  any  other  prophet,  since  by 
them  the  longing  for  the  unknown  was  more  safely 
gratified,  as  he  said,  than  by  those  of  Cagliostro,  Kant, 
or  any  German  dreamer.  The  levelling  system  of 
primitive  Christianity  was  the  remedy  for  social  dis- 
content; the  black  army  of  priests  was  the  guarantee 
of  internal  peace,  as  the  white  or  soldier  army  was  the 
safeguard  against  foreign  aggression. 

When,  therefore,  he  w^as  once  more  on  European  soil 
he  behaved  accordingly.  At  Milan,  on  the  morrow  of 
Marengo  (June,  1800),  he  professed  the  Catholic, 
Apostolic,  and  Roman  faith  *'as  the  only  religion  which 
gives  the  state  a  firm  and  durable  support."  At  Mal- 
maison  he  had  already  confessed  the  profound  emotion 
he  felt  on  hearing  the  church  bell  of  Rueil,  ''so  strong 
is  the  power  of  habit  and  education."  ^  Finally,  he  was 
evidently  determined  to  have  the  sacred  vial  broken 
over  his  head  as  himself  constituting  and  representing 
the  supreme  power  in  both  state  and  church.  To  crush 
social  anarchy,  to  make  religion  a  prop  to  the  govern- 
ment, to  preserve  the  focal  revolutionary  principle  of 
religious  liberty  by  the  parity  of  sects  under  state  pa- 
tronage and  under  the  law — these  were  the  ends  of  the 
Concordat.^ 

How  were  victories  so  amazing,  a  triumph  so  com- 
plete, to  be  wrested  from  the  papacy?  How  was  a  reli- 
gious charter  to  be  forced  upon  a  France  that  was 


^  Mercier,  Paris  pendant  la 
Revolution,  II.  443.  "Les 
cloches  n'ont  jamais  fait  tant 
de  bruit  depuis  qu'on  les  a  fait 
taire." 

^  See  Roederer,  CEuvres,  III. 
335.  Likewise  the  manuscript 
note   of   Gregoire   quoted  in 


Aulard,  Histoire  Politique, 
p.  734.  Bonaparte  held  that  but 
for  religion  social  inequalities 
could  not  exist.  He  wanted 
religion  for  the  sake  of  "ser- 
vantes,  cordonniers,"  and  the 
like — that  is,  to  keep  the  com- 
mon people  content. 


256       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


reactionary  and  radical  in  about  equal  proportions? 
The  facts  are  briefly  these.  By  the  Treaty  of  Tolen- 
tino,  Bonaparte,  though  stripping  the  papacy  of  its 
earthly  goods,  had  left  the  skeleton  of  its  secular  and 
temporal  power  intact.  During  his  absence  in  Egypt 
the  Directory,  having  revolutionized  both  central  and 
southern  Italy,  had  first  lost  its  strength  there,  then 
elsewhere  and  everywhere,  at  home  and  abroad.  In 
particular,  by  a  series  of  overwhelming  disasters  to  the 
French  armies,  Austria  had  reestablished  control  over 
all  northern  Italy.  Pope  Pius  VI.  having  died  in  exile, 
the  college  of  cardinals  had  been  dispersed;  there  was 
pending  what  seemed  likely  to  be  a  long  interregnum 
in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter's. 

Seizing  the  opportunity  of  his  transient  victories  in 
Italy,  Francis,  the  emperor  at  Vienna,  convened  thirty- 
five  of  the  cardinals  in  conclave  at  Venice  on  November 
thirtieth,  1799.  After  a  series  of  unseemly  intrigues 
and  disgraceful  wrangles,  which  for  week  after  week 
endangered  the  very  existence  of  the  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem the  members  were  met  to  perpetuate  and  sustain, 
Cardinal  Chiaramonte  was  finally  chosen  Pope;  on 
March  fourteenth,  1800,  he  was  proclaimed  as  Pius 
VII.  The  procedure  from  first  to  last  was  irregular 
in  canon  law  and  unsupported  by  ecclesiastical  tra- 
dition. 

As  Bishop  of  Imola  the  new  Pope  had  issued  a  pas- 
toral letter  during  the  French  invasion  of  1798  arguing 
that  between  Roman  Catholicism  and  revolutionary  in- 
stitutions there  was  no  essential  incompatibility.  He 
was  therefore  hailed  as  a  liberal,  and  proved  to  be  one. 
From  Milan,  Bonaparte,  whose  Marengo  campaign 
had  just  confirmed  his  mastery  in  France,  made  known 
at  Rome,  by  the  intermediation  of  Cardinal  Martiniana, 
his  desire  for  a  solution  of  the  French  ecclesiastical 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  257 


problem.^  The  Pope  eagerly  despatched  two  envoys, 
who  followed  Bonaparte  to  Paris ;  these  were  Arch- 
bishop Spina,  a  capable  negotiator,  and  F.  Caselli,  an 
adroit  theologian.  The  negotiators  on  the  other  side 
were  quickly  chosen ;  they  were  the  bland  and  versatile 
Talleyrand  and  the  Abbe  Bernier,^  an  able,  supple,  and 
accomplished  Vendean,  who  had  been  instrumental  in 
establishing  the  authority  of  the  Consulate  throughout 
the  troubled  district  in  which  was  his  home.^ 

The  terms  proposed  by  Bonaparte  were :  first,  the 
voluntary  resignation  of  the  entire  French  episcopate ; 
second,  the  sanction  of  the  sale  of  ecclesiastical,  now 
called  national,  properties,  as  decreed  by  the  National 
Assembly;  third,  the  reapportionment  of  dioceses  so 
as  to  diminish  the  episcopate  one  half  (to  fifty  bishops 
and  twelve  archbishops)  ;  and,  fourth,  the  recognition 
of  the  Constitutional  clergy  in  the  new  arrangement. 

The  first  of  these  points  was,  in  Bonaparte's  opinion, 
the  most  vital.  He  could  not  restore  religion  except 
under  circumstances  that  would  neither  wound  the 
general  sense  of  propriety  nor  disturb  the  public  peace. 
To  secure  such  conditions  it  was  essential  "to  exclude 


^  It  was  immediately  after 
Marengo  that  the  Consulate 
began  to  discourage  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Decadi,  whether 
by  the  secular  exercises  or  by 
those  of  the  Theophilanthro- 
pists.  Up  to  that  time  little 
more  than  a  change  of  atti- 
tude had  been  noticeable  in 
the  religious  administration 
under  the  new  government. 
"In  spite  of  what  our  Paris 
atheists  might  say,"  Bonaparte 
wrote  to  his  colleagues,  "a  Te 
Deum  was  chanted  at  Milan 
for  the  victory." 

^  Cretineau-Joly.  L'feglise  Ro- 
maine  en  Face  de  la  Revolution, 


I.  239.  Bernier  had  an  extrav- 
agant admiration  for  Bona- 
parte: "Never  has  any  man 
more  thoroughly  grasped  the 
meaning  of  events,"  was  his 
judgment.  See  his  extended 
opinion  quoted  as  above. 

^  Theiner,  Deux  Concordats. 
2  vols.,  Paris,  1869,  is  a  store- 
house of  original  documents, 
given  mostly  in  the  text,  but 
many  likewise  in  an  extended 
appendix.  Even  more  com- 
plete is  the  collection  of  Bou- 
lay  de  la  Meurthe,  Documents 
sur  la  Negociation  du  Con- 
cordat. 


258        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


from  oifice  those  of  the  former  bishops  whose  influence 
would  tend  to  disturb  the  present  situation,  and  who 
since  the  Revolution  seem  to  have  identified  their  epis- 
copate with  one  or  another  government  in  such  a  way 
that  they  neither  keep  nor  use  one  except  to  gain  the 
other,  a  course  which  would  be  a  source  of  new  trouble 
and  new  anguish  to  France." 

The  First  Consul  also  desired  that  the  titular  bishops 
of  the  new  circumscriptions  should  not  be  annoyed  by 
those  whose  former  titles  would  now  be  attached  to 
the  new  bishoprics ;  the  old  incumbents  must  therefore 
resign  as  a  condition  antecedent.  Finally,  in  the  case 
of  such  former  bishops  as  had  shown  their  sterling 
worth  and  moderation  amid  all  the  bygone  convulsions 
of  France,  and  w^ho  therefore  might  be  continued  in 
office,  he  was  determined  that  they  should  owe  their 
office  and  know  that  they  so  owed  it  to  the  ''free  choice 
of  the  government,  ratified  by  His  Holiness,  and  that 
to  their  promised  fidelity  they  must  add  the  sacred 
bond  of  a  just  and  proper  gratitude."  These  were  the 
three  cogent  reasons  given  for  the  demand  which  of  all 
others  would  prove  most  trying  to  the  Pope — a  demand 
which  destroyed  the  historic  continuity  of  the  French 
episcopate.  In  support  of  his  requirement  Bernier 
cited  the  demission  of  the  bishops  at  the  time  of  the 
Donatist  schism.  As  was  expected.  Spina  expostu- 
lated vigorously  and  argued  eloquently,  but  the  French 
negotiators  were  steadfast  and  unyielding.^ 

From  the  very  outset  the  cardinal-archbishop  in- 
volved the  papal  diplomacy  in  tortuous  courses.  His 
emissaries  were  chosen,  with  suspicious  facilit}^  among 
men  of  every  grade  in  belief,  and  even  among  men  of 
no  faith  whatsoever.    It  was  a  singular  lack  of  tact 

^  Theiner,  Les  Deiix  Concordats,  prints  Bernier's  notes  as 
original  document,  No.  XIV. 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT 


259 


which  induced  him  to  send  the  atheist  astronomer 
Lalande  to  act  as  a  mediator  with  Gregoire.  If  the 
regular  hishops  were  not  to  resign,  it  was  essential  that 
the  Constitutionals  should ;  and  in  a  shrewd  circular 
Spina  begged  each  and  all  to  see  eye  to  eye  with  him. 

Gregoire's  response  ^  was  a  plain-spoken  statement 
of  facts  as  he  saw  them;  but  one  and  all,  he  with  the 
rest,  the  Constitutional  bishops  resigned.  They  under- 
stood that  preliminary  to  all  reorganization  there 
would  be  a  virtual  act  of  oblivion,  whether  the  Pope 
so  willed  or  not,  and  they  yielded  to  what  they  felt  was 
chicane  for  the  sake  of  principles  they  had  so  vigor- 
ously enunciated ;  they  could  not  hold  up  their  heads 
as  honest  men  while  persisting  in  any  course  that  would 
perpetuate  the  schism.  But  the  diplomatic  wiles  of 
the  papal  envoy  were  noted ;  and,  being  clearly  under- 
stood by  two  men  who  were  no  tyros  in  the  same  arts, 
their  influence  and  example  were  held  in  reserve  to 
provide  and  offset  a  fitting  climax.  At  the  last  fateful 
moment  the  papacy  was  defeated  by  a  simple  parry. 
The  original  bishops,  like  the  Constitutionals,  had  to 
lay  down  their  staves  and  mitres ;  and  when  but  a  cer- 
tain number  resumed  the  symbols  of  their  office,  it  was 
at  the  behest  of  the  state  and  not  of  the  church. 

Possibly  the  most  searching  question  in  the  whole 
procedure  was,  as  Bonaparte  maintained,  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  clerical  estates.  It  was  so  at  least  from  the 
social  standpoint,  for  a  great  prelate  must  needs  change 
his  heart  and  his  garment  both  if  the  ecclesiastical  es- 
tates were  to  remain  sequestered.  Here  the  advice  of 
Gregoire  appears  to  have  been  determinative.  He 
spent  much  time  at  Malmaison  with  Bonaparte,  pacing 
the  shrubberies  and  garden-paths,  reasoning  of  the 
papacy,  its  essence,  its  purpose,  and  the  means  of 

^  Annales  de  la  Religion,  XIV.  31,  cited  in  Gregoire,  II.  97. 


26o       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


negotiating  with  it.  Noting  that  the  serious  deHn- 
quencies  of  the  popedom  were  one  and  all  due  to  the 
secular  character  of  its  court,  which,  moreover,  was 
narrowly  Italian  and  not  catholic  at  all,  he  proposed 
to  meet  its  worldly  guile  with  the  nicest  punctilio,  and, 
while  pressing  essentials,  yield  in  all  possible  points  to 
nervous  sensibility.  Accordingly,  by  his  advice  the 
Pope  was  requested  not  to  ratify,  approve,  nor  sanction 
the  sale  of  ecclesiastical  estates,  but  merely  to  recognize 
the  legality  and  validity  of  such  sales.  Spina  assever- 
ated the  sinfulness  of  sequestrating  church  property, 
and  hoped  the  sin  might  be  diminished  by  a  restoration 
in  part  at  least.  Bernier  was  again  unmovable;  the 
actual  owners  were  in  legal  possession,  and  to  unsettle 
what  was  done  in  this  respect  would  arouse  such  gen- 
eral animosity  as  to  render  ecclesiastical  reorganization 
impossible. 

The  other  perplexities  were  met  in  exactly  the  same 
way.  Bernier  insisted  that  more  than  half  of  the  an- 
cient dioceses  should  disappear;  Spina  protested,  and 
schemed  to  thwart  his  imperious  opponent,  but  all  in 
vain.  The  episcopate  as  reconstructed  should  consist  of 
sixty-two  prelates,  twelve  archbishops  and  fifty  bishops, 
one  for  each  of  the  new  dioceses.  Similarly,  both  Bona- 
parte and  Talleyrand  took  the  ground  that  the  interests 
of  the  Constitutionals  were  just  as  dear  to  them  as 
were  those  of  the  nonjurors  to  His  Holiness.  Political 
peace  had  been  reestablished  in  France  by  disregard  of 
the  near  past,  of  its  parties,  its  quarrels,  and  its  bit- 
terness ;  peace  was  speedily  to  be  restored  among  Con- 
tinental nations  by  the  treaty  in  negotiation  at  Lune- 
ville,  likewise  by  consigning  the  past  to  oblivion;  in 
no  other  way  could  religious  peace  be  established  than 
by  forgetting  and  forgiving  the  past,  and  then  equally 
distributing    the    reconstituted    power.  ^'Religious 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  261 


peace,"  wrote  the  sometime  Bishop  of  Autun,  '^cannot 
be  effected  except  by  reuniting  all  consciences  and  every 
denomination  of  ecclesiastics  under  the  benign  and 
paternal  authority  of  the  Holy  See."  ^  This  attitude 
Spina  declared  to  be  totally  impracticable,  and  so  firm 
was  he  that  the  question — the  only  one  of  the  four 
which  was  so  treated — was  not  urged,  and  its  discus- 
sion was  suspended. 

During  the  two  months  of  preliminary  negotiations 
at  Paris,  Bonaparte  maintained  as  resident  plenipoten- 
tiary in  Rome  a  sometime  republican  named  Cacault, 
the  same  whom  in  1796  he  had  ordered  to  ''dodge  the 
old  fox,"  Pius  VI.  The  minister  was  now  instructed 
to  treat  Pius  VH.  "as  if  he  were  master  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  men."  During  this  period  four  suc- 
cessive drafts  of  a  treaty  embodying  the  French  de- 
mands were  sent  to  Rome,  and,  in  spite  of  Cacault's 
intimidation,  rejected  by  the  Pope.  Pius  and  Con- 
salvi,  his  confidential  Secretary  of  State,  were  as  in- 
tractable as  the  French  ministers.  Considering  the 
irregular  source  of  Pius's  ofifice  and  power, — an  irregu- 
larity which  he  tacitly  admitted  in  excusing  his  ulti- 
mate compliance  with  distasteful  demands, — he  dis- 
played great  courage.  His  tenacity  was  to  a  certain 
extent  diplomatic.  He  had  little  purchase  for  resisting, 
for  he  must  have  recalled  that  the  earliest  religious  act 
of  the  Consulate  (3  Nivose)  was  a  virtual  restoration 
of  such  among  the  transported  priests  as  w^ere  not 
hardened  political  agitators.  He  must  have  remem- 
bered how,  next,  the  body  of  Pius  VI.  had  been  re- 
stored to  Rome  with  appropriate  churchly  services ;  and 
how,  finally,  as  has  been  told,  for  the  terrible  oath  ex- 
acted under  the  Directory  was  substituted  a  simple 
promise  of  loyalty  to  the  constitution;  he  was  well 

'Talleyrand  to  Bernier.  Theiner,  Deux  Concordats,  I.  lOi. 


262        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


aware  that  in  early  summer  the  still  existing  church 
edifices  were  reopened  for  orthodox  worship.  In  spite 
of  Fouche's  too  voluble  assertions  that  all  this  meant 
little,  only  one  interpretation  could  be  put  on  these 
facts,  and  this  Pius  saw.  There  was  complete  eman- 
cipation, even  for  the  refractory  clergy. 

The  end  of  papal  procrastination  was  reached  in  a 
way  characteristic  of  the  budding  emperor,  the  dicta- 
torial Napoleon.  In  May  the  Pope  was  notified  by 
Bernier  that  no  further  modifications  to  the  proposed 
Concordat  would  even  be  considered  at  Paris,  and  that 
if  there  were  further  delays  the  French  minister  would 
be  recalled  within  five  days  and  negotiations  ended. 
Cacault  suggested  as  a  last  resort  that  Consalvi  be  dele- 
gated to  make  personal  representations  to  the  First  Con- 
sul. The  proposition  was  eagerly  accepted,  and  Bona- 
parte's menace  was  so  far  fulfilled  that  the  papal  and 
French  diplomats  left  Rome  together,  the  latter  taking 
up  his  abode  temporarily  in  Florence,  while  the  former 
proceeded  to  Paris.  Consalvi  composed  his  memoirs 
eleven  years  after  the  events  which  he  records  and 
under  the  influence  of  resentment ;  they  are  not  reliable. 
In  his  despatch  to  Cardinal  Doria,  written  at  the  time,^ 
he  states  that  in  his  very  first  interview  with  Bonaparte 
he  was  cordially  received,  and  obtained  the  promise 
of  certain  modifications,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  wide- 
spread public  opinion  in  Paris  bitterly  opposing  recon- 
ciliation with  Rome,  a  fact  noted  by  the  envoy  himself. 
The  regular  succession  of  gains  made  by  France  both 
in  war  and  diplomacy  went  far  to  strengthen  Bona- 
parte. After  the  victory  of  Hohenlinden  he  withdrew 
his  offer  to  declare  the  Catholic  religion  that  of  the 

^Theiner,  Deux  Concordats,  241.    Consalvi's  memory  was 

I.  173,  gives  the  original.    Cf.  worthless,  or  else  his  motives 

the  Memoires  of  the  cardinal  were  questionable, 
as  quoted  in  Cretineau-Joly,  I. 


FORM  OF  THE  CONCORDAT  263 


state;  he  merely  admitted  it  to  be  ''that  of  the  great 
majority  of  French  citizens." 

That  the  Pope's  plenipotentiary  might  clearly  under- 
stand how  uncertain  his  position  really  was,  the  second 
ecclesiastical  council  of  the  Constitutionals  was  opened 
at  Paris  on  June  twenty-ninth.  Consalvi  diplomati- 
cally ignored  all  that  was  passing  before  his  eyes,  and 
drew  up  a  memorandum  repeating  the  papal  counter- 
demands  already  made  by  Spina — viz.,  that  the  govern- 
ment should  make  public  profession  of  adherence  to 
Roman  Catholicism,  guarantee  the  public  exercise  of 
Roman  Catholic  worship  (reestablishing  it  thus  as  the 
state  religion),  and  not  depose  the  present  bishops, 
some  eighty  or  ninety  in  number.  Bonaparte  proved 
to  be  long-suffering.  He  permitted  not  five  days,  but 
more  than  a  fortnight  to  pass  in  so-called  negotiations ; 
but  for  all  that  he  remained  obdurate  on  the  vital 
points;  all  that  could  be  construed  as  the  promised 
modifications  he  would  tolerate  were  certain  softenings 
of  phraseology.  Step  by  step  Consalvi  yielded,  and 
finally  the  seventh  draft  was  accepted.  It  was  to  be 
signed  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  both  sides  as  of  July 
fourteenth  at  the  mansion  of  Joseph  Bonaparte.  In 
the  evening  of  the  same  day,  and  in  order  to  counteract 
the  effect  on  public  opinion,  the  consuls  were  to  give  a 
public  banquet  commemorating  the  fall  of  the  Bastille, 
for  it  was  the  anniversary  of  that  occurrence. 


XV 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE 
CONCORDAT 


XV 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  CONCORDAT 

THE  course  and  character  of  the  negotiations  be- 
tween the  high  contracting  parties  of  the  Con- 
cordat give  httle  or  no  clew  to  the  extraordinary  events 
subsequent  to  its  negotiation  and  just  precedent  to  its 
signature.  Charges  and  counter-charges  of  dupHcity 
and  fraud  rolled  over  the  ecclesiastical  sky,  and  their 
mutterings  are  still  heard.  Viewed  from  one  stand- 
point, all  the  diplomacy  employed  on  one  side  and  the 
other  was  hollow,  for  at  home  the  First  Consul  unques- 
tionably had  the  power  to  enforce  any  commands  he 
chose  to  lay  upon  the  Gallican  Church,  while  abroad 
the  papacy  had  lost  its  last  great  prop  by  the  utter 
humiliation  of  the  Austrian  emperor  in  the  Peace  of 
Luneville.  Francis  II.  uttered  a  cry  of  anguish  in  the 
confession  that  he  had  exhausted  his  monarchy,  that 
thus  he  had  lost  the  imperial  position  in  the  European 
balance  of  power,  and  that  he  now  was  so  weak  that 
he  had  not  a  single  trustworthy  ally. 

What  was  loss  to  the  Austrian  monarchy  was  almost 
the  annihilation  of  the  papacy's  secular  power,  for  the 
temporalities  granted  by  the  treaty  to  the  successor  of 
St.  Peter  did  not  include  the  legations  and  the  Ro- 
magna,  while  the  continuance  of  temporal  power  in  any 
form  was  due  solely  to  the  good  will  of  a  young  gen- 
eral who  was  very  slippery  indeed  when  dogma  was 
the  matter  in  hand.    The  Treaty  of  Luneville  bore  the 

267 


268        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


date  of  February  ninth,  1801.  In  view  of  irregulari- 
ties in  his  election,  in  view  of  the  Hapsburg  humilia- 
tion, in  view  of  his  complete  dependence  on  France, 
which  now  had  not  a  single  Continental  power  in  arms 
against  her — considering  all  this,  Pius  VII.  and  his 
agents  had  shown  amazing  tenacity  of  purpose  and 
reliance  on  such  purely  moral  supports  as  they  could 
discern.  Great  daring  was  manifest  throughout  their 
negotiations,  especially  in  their  defiance  of  the  time 
limits  set  by  Bonaparte,  who  was  in  hot  haste  and  im- 
patient of  resistance.^ 

Consalvi,  moreover,  had  at  the  close  to  face  and 
reckon  with  what  was  the  reality  of  a  new  ecclesiastical 
organization,  the  nucleus  and  possibility  of  a  schism 
that  would  be  almost  as  disastrous  to  Rome  as  was  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There  before 
his  very  eyes  sat  a  "national  council,"  comprising  not 
only  forty-three  prelates,  but  likewise  other  delegates 
who  claimed  to  represent  fifty-two  dioceses.  The 
leader  of  the  body  asserted  that  for  three  years  past  no 
fewer  than  thirty-four  thousand  churches  had  been 
under  its  auspices;  eighty  synods  and  eight  metropoli- 
tan councils  had  preceded  this  second  national  coun- 
cil.^ Surely  and  steadily,  the  Constitutionals  claimed, 
this  organization  was  adapting  itself  to  the  national 
wants,  conceding  the  choice  of  its  pastors  to  the  people, 
unifying  and  enriching  the  liturgy,  and  exhibiting  its 
patriotism  by  summoning  the  Bishop  of  Lyons  to  pre- 
side as  Primate  of  the  Gauls. 

Shut  his  eyes  as  he  might  and  did  to  such  a  portent, 

^  The    authorities    for    this  Concordat ;  de  Pradt,  Quatre 

chapter  are  as  before  :  the  orig-  Concordats  ;  Portahs,  Concor- 

inal     documents     printed     in  dat   de    1801  ;  Cretineau-Joly, 

Theiner,    Documents    Inedits  L'^:gHse  Romaine  en  Face  de 

and  Deux  Concordats,  and  in  la  Revolution. 

Boulay  de  la  Meurthe,  Docu-  '  Gregoire.  Memoires,  11.  91, 

mcnts  sur  la  Negociation  du  99. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  269 


Consalvi  could  not  misunderstand  the  first  consul's  al- 
lusion when  he  jokingly  referred  to  this  synod  in  the 
remark  that  "when  terms  cannot  be  had  from  God 
you  must  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  devil/'  ^ 
The  papal  secretary  kept  a  bold  front,  but  inwardly  he 
\vas  sore  afraid,  and  his  fear  was  exhibited  in  his  guile. 
Exclaiming  that  he  was  willing  to  advance  to  the  gates 
of  hell,  but  not  further,  Pius,  with  the  assent  of  the 
Sacred  College,  had  on  his  secretary's  departure  aban- 
doned resistance  to  the  momentous  but  inevitable  step 
initial  to  all  progress — the  resignation  of  the  Ultramon- 
tane bishops ;  Consalvi  stooped  to  reopen  this  very 
question,  and  astutely  distorted  for  his  purpose  the 
vaunted  Gallican  liberties  of  1687.  Bernier  must  have 
been  disgusted  at  such  wiles,  but  the  First  Consul, 
though  immovable  as  to  essentials,  grudgingly  acceded 
to  the  suggestion  that  the  Pope  might  frame  his  own 
address  to  his  faithful  bishops,  French  officials  though 
they  w^ere.  Bonaparte  further  consented  to  the  omis- 
sion of  several  rude  expressions  and  the  modification 
of  some  trying  phrases.  There  he  paused  and  stood 
firm. 

But  the  despotism  which  was  latent  in  the  Direc- 
tory and  carefully  arranged  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Consulate  was  still  potential  rather  than  real.  The 
new^  chief  executive  of  France  had  his  own  troubles. 
Only  nine  years  had  elapsed — and  in  military  glory 
they  had  been  years  of  wonder — since  the  time  when 
a  godless  commonwealth,  radically  democratic,  close- 
knit  in  its  centralization  and  as  zealous  to  be  all-inclu- 
sive as  were  ever  the  political  systems  of  Romanism 
and  Calvinism,  had  been  the  ideal  of  a  majority  of 
ardent  Frenchmen.  While  most  of  the  old-line  radi- 
cals of  eminence  had  fallen  into  the  pit  they  had  digged 
^  Quoted  in  Jervis,  Gallican  Church,  p.  346. 


270       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


for  others,  and  had  perished  miserably  under  various 
pretences,  yet  there  remained  a  few  even  of  them,  and 
there  were  enormous  numbers  of  Freethinkers  who  had 
been  nourished  on  modifications,  more  or  less  complete, 
of  the  radical  doctrine.  To  all  these  the  very  thought 
of  a  composition  with  Rome  was  abhorrent.  The 
Consulate  began  as  a  civilian  government — even  Bona- 
parte wore  a  frock  coat;  as  such  it  professed  amity 
for  all  classes,  with  a  deprecatory  preference  as  far  as 
possible  for  republicans. 

But  as  time  passed  and  the  constitution  adopted  by 
the  popular  vote  gave  the  First  Consul  a  firmer  seat, 
the  republicans  grew  uneasy,  and  finally  sore.  A  rigid 
censorship  of  the  press  was  established,  the  old  repub- 
lican simplicity  of  manners  disappeared,  forms  of  po- 
liteness associated  with  the  monarchy  were  revived;  as 
the  consular  court  was  gradually  organized  in  osten- 
tatious modesty,  persons  long  in  hiding  were  seen  to  be 
preferred  in  honor;  contrasting  the  «ase  of  the  old 
nobility  with  the  stiffness  of  the  republicans,  Bona- 
parte sneered  that  only  the  former  possessed  the  art  of 
domestic  service,  and  pleaded  that  fact  as  an  excuse 
for  surrounding  himself  with  them. 

Finally  the  attempted  assassination  of  the  chief  mag- 
istrate, on  December  twenty-fourth,  1800.  was  falsely 
attributed  not  to  the  real  culprits,  the  royalists,  but  to  a 
radical  conspiracy  that  never  existed;  consequently  a 
hundred  and  thirty  irreconcilable  republicans  were  pro- 
scribed and  transported  to  various  tropical  prisons; 
some  thirty  more  were  placed  under  police  supervision, 
and  four  were  executed  for  treasonable  utterances.  It 
was  not  until  April,  1801,  that  the  real  assassins,  a 
royalist  named  Saint-Regeant  and  his  accomplice  Car- 
bon, were  guillotined.  The  royalists  and  republicans 
alike  suspected  a  coming  monarchy;  as  a  substitute 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  271 


for  the  legitimate  Bourbons  it  would  be  as  great  an 
abomination  to  the  former  as  any  monarchy  whatso- 
ever would  be  to  the  latter. 

Both  these  antipodal  factions,  therefore,  were  fierce 
and  alert.  If  the  Consulate  were  to  survive  it  must 
win  the  Roman  Catholic  masses  by  a  Concordat,  meet 
papal  guile  with  equal  wiliness,  and  if  it  were  to  with- 
stand the  active  politicians  its  agreement  must  handle 
the  papacy  with  no  consideration.  As  the  great  anni- 
versary of  the  republican  calendar,  July  fourteenth, 
drew  near  there  was  much  agitation  in  Paris  over  the 
idea  of  a  Concordat  as  inseparable  from  a  return  to 
monarchy  in  some  form.  It  showed  itself  in  the  legis- 
lature, in  the  administration,  among  the  social  leaders, 
the  men  of  science,  letters,  and  art.  On  July  thir- 
teenth the  Constitutional  clergy  instigated  a  formal 
and  vigorous  protest  against  it — a  protest  so  menacing 
that  when  it  was  shown  to  Consalvi  even  he  was  awed 
by  the  situation  of  the  consular  government.^ 

These  are  the  conditions  which  explain  the  curious 
and  interesting  interlude  which  was  played  by  clever 
actors  between  the  negotiation  and  formal  signing  of 
the  Concordat.  The  facts  as  far  as  given  to  the  world 
are  most  dramatic.  For  greater  convenience  the  actual 
signing  was  to  be  done  on  the  thirteenth  of  July.  The 
negotiators  therefore  met  on  that  day  at  the  appointed 
hour  and  place.  On  the  table  lay  what  was  ostensibly 
an  engrossed  copy  of  the  paper  as  arranged  by  Con- 
salvi and  Bernier.  The  papal  envoy  took  up  his  pen, 
and  before  yielding  to  inevitable  fate  ran  his  eye  hastily 
over  the  document.  According  to  his  own  account,  he 
was  dumfounded;  the  copy  was  in  the  unmodified 


^  See  Theiner.  Deux  Concor-     spatches  are  in  Boulay,  III.  223 
dats ;      Consalvi,     Memoires.     et  seq. 
The    cardinal's    original  de- 


272       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

form  of  the  original  demands !  Joseph  Bonaparte  ex- 
amined the  paper,  and  was  sincerely  amazed.  Bernier 
asseverated  that  the  paper  was  just  as  he  had  received 
it  from  the  hands  of  the  First  Consul.  Apparently  both 
cardinal  and  abbe  were  filled  with  horror  and  dis- 
may. But,  according  to  the  account  of  Bernier's 
friends,  Consalvi  already  knew  what  he  had  to  expect, 
and  was  acting  a  part.  In  any  case,  the  papal  legate 
threw  down  his  pen  and  declared  himself  the  victim 
of  a  fraud.  If  the  genuine  document  were  not  to  be 
signed  he  thought  the  sitting  should  end  at  once. 

It  does  not  seem  possible  to  prove  or  disprove  the 
charge  of  attempted  fraud;  diplomacy  as  practised  by 
all  parties  had  its  own  devious  ways  throughout  the 
revolutionary  epoch.  It  is  denied  as  well  as  asserted 
that  moderate  republicans  and  radicals  had  joined  that 
very  day  in  another  violent  remonstrance  to  the  First 
Consul  against  the  Concordat.  Nor  is  it  possible  to 
prove  what  is  asserted,  that,  yielding  to  his  own  in- 
clination, Bonaparte  had  restored  the  terse  language 
of  his  original  demand,  and  that  Consalvi  was  aware 
of  the  fact.  In  any  case,  what  followed  is  unprece- 
dented if  Consalvi  were  sincere  in  his  professions  of 
ignorance.  How  could  that  have  been  possible  which 
is  certain,  that  under  Joseph  Bonaparte's  calming  in- 
fluence negotiations  were  renewed  then  and  there,  last- 
ing for  nineteen  unbroken  hours,  until  noon  of  the  next 
day  ?  By  that  time  agreement  was  reached  as  to  every 
article  except  one,  that  which  stipulated  the  liberty  of 
the  Catholic  worship  and  the  publicity  of  its  exercise. 
This  was  referred  to  Napoleon,  and  the  little  congress 
of  six  plenipotentiaries  adjourned  in  complete  ex- 
haustion.^ 

*  For  France :  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Bernier,  Cretet ;  for 
Rome:  Consalvi,  Spina,"and  Caselli. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  273 


The  public  festival  was  held,  as  arranged,  on  the 
evening  of  the  fourteenth.  Consalvi  appeared  at  the 
Tuileries,  and  when  greeted  by  the  First  Consul  in  a 
tone  of  menace  courageously  signified  his  intention  to 
depart  at  once;  he  had  not  desired  the  rupture,  for  he 
had  assented  to  all  the  articles  except  one,  and  that  em- 
bodied a  principle  concerning  which  he  must  consult 
the  Holy  Father.  It  was  by  the  friendly  intervention 
of  Cobentzl,  the  Austrian  ambassador,  who  was  a  de- 
vout adherent  of  the  papacy,  that  arrangement  was 
made  for  a  last  conference  on  the  morrow.  Twelve 
weary  hours  were  again  spent  in  debate,  and  finally  the 
crucial  article  was  by  mutual  consent  worded  as  fol- 
lows :  ''The  Catholic  worship  shall  be  public,  but  in 
conformity  with  such  police  regulations  as  the  govern- 
ment may  judge  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
public  peace  (pro  tranquillitate  piiblicd) The  signa- 
tures were  affixed  at  midnight  of  July  fifteenth-six- 
teenth, 1 80 1. 

Next  morning  the  First  Consul  was  induced  by  his 
brother  Joseph  to  accept  the  treaty,  apparently  with 
great  difficulty.^  To  us  who  know  Napoleon's  dra- 
matic ability,  who  are  familiar  with  the  "Articles  Or- 
ganiques"  which  gave  the  final  form  to  the  Concordat, 
and  who  recall  the  contrasts  between  the  gory  Terror 
or  the  ruthless  paganism  of  the  Directory  and  the 
France  which  thenceforth  heard  the  Catholic,  Apos- 
tolic, and  Roman  religion  officially  proclaimed  as  the 
faith  of  the  great  majority  of  French  citizens,  which 
saw  the  order  go  forth  that  Catholic  "worship  should 
be  freely  and  publicly  exercised  under  protection  of 
the  law," — to  us,  in  short,  who  view  the  scenes  in  the 
perspective  of  history,  it  appears  as  if  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte felt  sure  he  had  gained  a  personal  triumph,  and 
*  Memoires  du  Roi  Joseph,  X.  285. 


274        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


as  if  he  must  have  rejoiced  inwardly,  despite  his  show 
of  impatience. 

The  rest  of  his  task  was  comparatively  easy;  with 
both  the  French  and  Italian  ^  malcontents  he  felt  that 
he  knew  how  to  deal.  Apparently,  however,  he  was 
seriously  hindered.  There  were  trouble  and  delay  at 
every  stage,  ostensibly. 

It  was  on  August  sixth  that  Bonaparte  in  person 
proclaimed  the  Concordat  to  the  council  of  state.  The 
announcement  was  received  with  the  icy  silence  of  dis- 
approval. So,  too,  the  Pope  found  not  only  small 
encouragement  in  the  college  of  cardinals  as  a  whole, 
but  a  determined  resistance  on  the  part  of  several. 
Nevertheless,  on  August  thirteenth  he  issued  a  brief 
containing  the  motives  of  his  action,  and  on  the  fif- 
teenth, in  the  bull  "Ecclesia  Dei,"  called  on  the  refrac- 
tory bishops  of  the  French  dioceses  to  resign.  Ratifica- 
tions were  exchanged  between  the  contracting  parties 
on  September  tenth.  It  was  almost  a  year  later — not 
until  April  fifth,  1802 — that  all  preliminaries  for  put- 
ting the  law  into  execution  were  arranged  and  the  Con- 
cordat was  finally  accepted  by  the  legislature.  Of 
eighty-one  bishops  surviving  from  the  old  regime,  for- 
ty-five resigned  and  the  rest  were  deposed ;  thirteen  re- 
fused to  acquiesce  in  their  deposition,  and,  persisting  in 
the  assertion  of  an  empty  dignity,  formed  the  ''Little 
Church"  already  mentioned.  In  spite  of  repeated  ef- 
forts by  Leo  XII.  and  Gregory  XVL,  the  schism  of  the 
"Little  Church"  w^as  not  extinguished  until  1893  by 
the  letter  of  Leo  XIII.  to  the  Bishop  of  Poitiers ;  and 
to  this  day  there  is  still  a  little  band  of  irreconcilables 
in  France,  although  they  have  no  organization. 


^  For  the  movement  inaugu- 
rated in  Lombardy  and  Pied- 
mont by  Scipio  de  Ricei,  see 


Botta,  Storia  d'ltalia,  dal  1789 
al  1815. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  275 


The  new  bishops  of  the  Concordat,  sixty  in  number, 
including  the  ten  archbishops,  were  presented  by  the 
government  and  instituted  by  the  Pope;  of  the  entire 
number  only  fifteen  were  former  Constitutionals. 
Thereupon  the  whole  system,  episcopal,  diocesan,  and 
parochial,  was  unified  and  reorganized.  At  the  close  of 
service  in  every  church  the  prayer  ascended :  "Domine, 
fac  salvam  rempublicam ;  Domine,  salvos  fac  consules." 
Proper  salaries  were  paid  by  the  state  to  all  ecclesiastics, 
church  estates  were  confirmed  to  their  actual  posses- 
sors, and  Pius  granted  to  the  consuls  all  the  rights  of 
sovereigns — to  wit,  exemption  from  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Ordinary,  absolution  by  their  own  confessors  in 
cases  otherwise  reserved  to  the  Pope,  the  right  of  vis- 
iting monasteries,  of  not  being  excommunicated  with- 
out special  papal  authorization,  and  of  being  canons 
in  the  Church  of  St.  John  Lateran  in  Rome.  The 
temporal  power  of  Pius  VII.  was  recognized,  a  nuncio 
took  up  his  residence  in  Paris,  and  a  French  ambassa- 
dor in  Rome.  This  was  the  performance  of  what  the 
lawyers  call  a  synallagmatic  contract,  going  into 
operation  by  the  mutual  or  reciprocal  fulfilment  of 
obligations. 

The  Concordat  was  at  one  and  the  same  time  a  law 
of  the  state  and  of  the  church.  Quite  otherwise  the 
'^Organic  Articles  of  the  Catholic  Cult,"  which  were 
voted  simultaneously  as  a  purely  secular  measure  and 
were  never  submitted  to  Pius  VII.  Under  the  pre- 
tence of  ''police  regulation"  Napoleon  harked  back  to 
the  Gallican  Declaration  of  1682  as  the  norm  of  state 
action,  his  object  being  to  exclude  the  Pope  com- 
pletely from  all  direct  interference  in  the  affairs  of  the 
church  throughout  France,  and  to  centralize  ecclesias- 
tical administration  in  his  own  hands.  This  legacy 
of  the  old  monarchy  had  been  utterly  discredited  by 


276       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


experience.  Under  its  provisions  all  acts  of  the  Vat- 
ican and  of  foreign  synods  were  subject  to  state  veri- 
fication, no  council  could  be  held  without  state  author- 
ization, prelates  could  not  even  visit  Rome  without 
state  permission,  and  the  right  of  appeal  ab  abusu 
to  lay  courts  was  asserted.  So  far  we  can  find  noth- 
ing to  blame.  A  foreign  power  as  such  should  not 
intervene  in  the  affairs  of  any  state  except  through  the 
government;  it  was  likewise  well  to  separate  spiritual 
from  temporal  affairs,  to  regulate  marriage  as  a  civil 
contract,  and  to  charge  the  administration  with  keep- 
ing vital  statistics. 

But  the  rest  has  been  justly  stigmatized  as  adminis- 
trative despotism.  Liberty  of  organization,  of  forms 
in  worship,  of  ecclesiastical  dress,  of  teaching  and 
preaching,  of  all  that  makes  for  freedom,  was  utterly 
cut  off.  Even  the  Protestants,  whose  ecclesiastical 
affairs  were  regulated  by  another  set  of  organic  ar- 
ticles and  who  had  no  religious  head,  were  virtually 
stripped  of  the  right  of  free  choice  in  unessentials ;  as 
Pastor  Vincent  of  Nimes  remarked,  religion  became  a 
department  of  government,  a  subject  of  administration. 
The  minister  of  state,  Count  Portalis,  who  endeavored 
to  justify  the  Concordat  in  a  famous  speech,  was  ac- 
cused of  an  effort  to  turn  God  himself  into  a  French 
functionary,  and  this  is  literally  what  was  attempted 
later  under  the  First  Empire.  Discipline,  doctrine, 
and  even  dogma  were  alike  placed  under  state  control. 
It  was  indeed  a  remarkable  series  of  regulations  to 
secure  what  the  Concordat  styled  ''public  tranquillity." 
Wherever  there  was  a  Protestant  church  the  Catholics 
were  forbidden  to  celebrate  their  rites  without  the 
walls  of  their  own  churches  or  to  march  in  procession 
through  the  streets  with  ecclesiastical  pomp.  Pius 
VII.  was  of  course  outraged  at  being  so  overreached. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  277 


He  at  once  began  a  series  of  protests,  which  continued 
for  fifteen  years,  under  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire 
with  no  results,  and  under  the  Restoration  with  almost 
negligible  success. 

To  the  Protestants  perfect  toleration  with  state  sup- 
port was  assured.  Both  the  Calvinists  and  the  Luther- 
ans of  France  were  organized  into  state  churches  by 
their  own  ''organic  laws,"  passed  simultaneously  with 
the  others.  Their  parishes,  consistories,  and  synods 
were  formed  and  regulated  under  state  control,  and 
their  officers  began  to  receive  state  pay.  So,  too,  a  little 
later,  the  Jews,  by  the  device  of  a  Grand  Sanhedrim 
summoned  to  meet  at  Paris,  were  organized  into  syna- 
gogues and  consistories;  the  rabbis  were  to  be  paid  a 
sum  fixed  by  the  state,  but  at  first  these  moneys  were 
raised  by  voluntary  contributions;  they  were  not  made 
a  charge  on  the  public  treasury  until  183 1.  All  Jews 
were  forced  to  adopt  and  use  family  names,  perform 
military  service,  forswear  polygamy,  and  subscribe  the 
oath  of  national  allegiance.  For  other  forms  of  wor- 
ship, Greek,  Anglican,  and  Mussulman  being  the  only 
ones  known  to  have  any  substantial  numbers  of  adher- 
ents, complete  protection  was  assured  under  a  volun- 
tary system  of  support. 

With  the  unavoidable  breach  between  the  full-blown 
despot,  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  and  the  Pope  we  have 
here  nothing  to  do,  for  it  was  an  historic  episode  with- 
out historic  results  of  any  weight  as  regards  the  revolu- 
tionary epoch.  For  the  subsequent  epoch  it  had  con- 
siderable importance.  The  Napoleonic  system  was  by 
its  author  extended  for  an  appreciable  period  over  both 
Italy  and  Spain,  as  well  as  over  the  French  Empire 
proper.  In  the  Italian  Concordat  of  1803  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  the  Catholic  religion  should  be  the  state 
religion.     This  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the 


278        THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


Italian  liberals.  Yet  the  results  were  almost  insignifi- 
cant. The  affairs  of  the  Roman  Church  were  man- 
aged by  shifts  and  uncanonical  expedients  throughout 
not  only  the  Catholic  but  the  Protestant  lands  of  west- 
ern and  central  Europe.  The  secular  authorities  med- 
dled at  their  will,  partly  because  of  a  general  loss  of 
respect  for  the  papacy  and  partly  because  the  Pope  was 
in  captivity ;  he  was  a  prisoner,  even  though  his  prison 
was  the  palace  of  Fontainebleau. 

This  situation  lasted  until  1814,  and  the  conse- 
quences in  France  itself,  but  especially  elsewhere  in 
Europe,  were  far  reaching.  Jacobinism  had  pene- 
trated Germany  in  the  camp  equipage  of  the  French 
armies,  and  altars  had  been  erected  to  Reason  in  many 
towns,  notably  Mentz,  Treves,  and  Cologne.^  When 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  became  French  the  secular 
princes  were  indemnified,  as  long  before  by  the  Treaty 
of  Westphalia,  in  the  vast  ecclesiastical  estates  which 
were  permanently  secularized  and  incorporated  into 
the  modern  states  of  Europe.  These  were  for  the 
most  part  ruled  by  Protestant  princes,  or  at  least  by 
such  as  were  ready  to  break  with  Rome.  Roman  Ca- 
tholicism lost  everything  in  the  nature  of  effective  secu- 
lar protection  throughout  the  Continent,  except  in  the 
single  case  of  Dalberg,  who  secured  from  Napoleon  the 
primacy  of  Germany  and  retained  for  a  time  as  an  ec- 
clesiastical prince  such  portions  of  Mentz,  Treves,  and 
Cologne  as  were  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The 
estates  of  all  chapters,  monasteries,  and  abbeys  passed, 
by  authorization  of  the  imperial  ^'deputation"  held  at 
Ratisbon  in  1803,  into  the  hands  of  the  secular  author- 
ity, to  be  used  for  the  support  of  worship,  education, 

^  For  an  interesting  discus-  see  Venedey :  Die  Deutschen 
sion  of  what  was  done  by  the  RepubHcaner  unter  der  Fran- 
secret    societies   of   the   Ilhi-  zosischen  Republik,  p,  91, 
minati  in  preparing  the  way, 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  279 


and  the  like  public  interests,  or  for  reestablishing  the 
public  finances. 

In  consequence  of  these  measures  there  was  a  wide- 
spread eclipse  of  faith  among  Roman  Catholics  in 
every  place,  and  consequently  a  decline  both  in  the 
organized  Roman  Church  and  in  true  religion.  Sep- 
arate German  states,  Bavaria  in  particular,  struggled 
to  imitate  their  master  and  negotiated  concordats  of 
their  own ;  these  papers  represented  the  public  temper, 
but  they  were  not  law,  for  they  were  never  signed. 
The  same  was  substantially  true  of  the  Roman  Church 
both  in  Italy  and  in  Spain.  IMonasteries  and  convents 
were  closed, — two  thirds  at  least  of  the  whole  number, 
— their  estates  were  confiscated,  and  the  clergy  in  gen- 
eral was  either  forced  to  accept  secular  control  or  to 
abdicate  its  functions.  During  the  whole  period  the 
secular  power  assumed  in  all  places  ecclesiastical  func- 
tions, and  the  memory  of  those  days  survives  yet  in 
every  European  capital  as  affording  a  possible  solution 
of  knotty  problems  at  acute  crises.  The  power  of  the 
papacy  has  never  been  the  same  since  the  days  of  the 
first  French  Empire. 

It  is,  however,  the  common  experience  of  mankind 
that  measures  enacted  in  principle  are  constantly  nulli- 
fied in  administration.  The  cries  of  Pius  VII.  were 
incessant  and  apparently  justified.  Himself  a  prisoner 
in  France,  French  priests  were  either  subservient  func- 
tionaries or  were  reduced  to  helplessness  by  persecu- 
tion. Spiritual  tyranny  was  unabated ;  for  a  season  the 
most  sacred  duties  of  the  church  were  performed  within 
the  limits  of  the  severest  statutory  law.  Yet,  as  time 
passed,  Bonaparte  felt  so  strong  that  little  by  little  se- 
verity was  relaxed,  until  a  sense  of  grateful  relief  began 
to  arise  among  the  faithful.  In  the  first  year  of  the 
Concordat  only  one  million  dollars  were  appropriated 


280       THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


for  the  support  of  the  Roman  Church;  by  1807  the 
sum  was  increased  to  eight  milHons !  More  than  this, 
in  the  same  interval  considerable  portions  of  the  eccle- 
siastical estates  had  been  restored  to  church  uses. 
Other  things  even  more  strange  had  likewise  occurred. 
The  radical  members  of  the  National  Institute  were  re- 
duced to  inactivity.  The  Imperial  University  was  in- 
structed to  base  all  education  on  Catholic  principles! 
Napoleon's  own  hand  wrote  Catholic  where  Christian 
had  first  been  suggested.  The  schools  of  the  Chris- 
tian Brethren  were  reorganized  as  an  offset  to  the  secu- 
lar primary  schools.  The  rules  as  to  religious  pro- 
cessions were  relaxed,  the  republican  calendar  was 
abolished,  and,  although  without  specific  authorization, 
certain  religious  communities  were  reestablished  and 
tolerated.  Under  the  Restoration  and  subsequently 
the  powerful  democracy  of  France  was  galled  by  its 
chains,  and  in  its  repeated  efforts  at  emancipation  un- 
did much  of  this.  But  for  what  survived  the  papacy 
has  expressed  gratitude.^ 

In  some  sense,  therefore,  French  liberals  are  justi- 
fied in  their  contention  that  the  Concordat  was  a  reac- 
tionary measure.  The  religious  associations  were 
never  more  powerful  morally  than  now;  secular  edu- 
cation, both  secondary  and  primary,  was  never  less  in- 
fluential ;  the  absence  of  sectarianism  within  the  Roman 
Church  was  never  more  conspicuous.  Yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  what  is  to  the  French  government  a  stum- 
bling-block is  a  religious  condition  quite  different 
from  the  Ultramontanism  of  the  eighteenth  century; 
the  Roman  hierarchy  of  contemporary  France  is  al- 
most Gallican  in  the  broad  sense  of  that  word,  and  the 

^  Theiner's  volumes  were  a  maine  et  le  Premier  Empire) 
retort  to  the  charge  of  M.  that  CathoHcs  owed  nothing  to 
d'Haussonville   (L'Eglise  Ro-  Napoleon. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  CONCORDAT  281 


\'atican  follows  rather  than  leads  the  ecclesiastical 
opinion  of  the  country  in  its  attitude  toward  French 
politics.  \Miile,  therefore,  neither  Protestantism  nor 
radicalism  has  proportionately  made  gains  of  impor- 
tance one  over  the  other  in  the  number  of  avowed  ad- 
herents, yet  within  the  Roman  Church  there  has  been 
a  persistent  and  marked  current  of  true  reform  due  to 
the  secular  revolution,  and  its  permanent  gains  in  moral 
force  may  be  noted  scarcely  less  within  than  without 
the  fold  of  Rome. 

Finally,  what  is  to-day  a  menace  to  governmental 
authority  in  France — namely,  the  extraordinary  power 
and  wealth  of  uncontrolled  and  invading  religious 
orders — was  unforeseen  by  the  makers  of  the  Con- 
cordat. The  monasteries  had  been  annihilated,  their  re- 
organization seemed  impossible.  No  provision,  there- 
fore, was  made  against  a  contingency  of  which  no 
one  dreamed.  But  the  unexpected  came  to  pass,  and 
the  new  orders  which  to-day  conduct  the  education 
of  the  upper  classes  almost  entirely,  care  for  the  sick 
very  extensively,  and  print  the  most  widely  circulated 
journals  of  the  country,  being  unknown  to  France  in 
1 80 1,  defy  all  authority  except  that  of  Rome.  The 
situation,  therefore,  seems  utterly  abnormal  to  both  the 
government  and  its  supporters,  including  the  majority 
of  those  Catholics  living  under  the  Concordat.  That 
such  powers  within  the  state  will  eventually  be  placed 
in  some  measure  under  state  control  cannot  be  doubted. 
Should  a  new  and  more  comprehensive  Concordat  be 
substituted  for  the  old,  or  a  supplement  to  the  Articles 
Organiques  be  enacted  into  a  law  controlling  the  new- 
orders,  the  present  ecclesiastical  system  may  take  a 
new  lease  of  life.  Otherwise  France  must  move  on- 
ward to  complete  disestablishment. 


APPENDIX 


MORSE  LECTURESHIP 

Founded  by  Professor  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  May  20,  1865,  in  the  sum 
of  $10,000. 

"The  general  subject  of  the  lectures  I  desire  to  be  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Bible  to  any  of  the  sciences,  as  geography,  geology, 
history,  and  ethnology ;  the  vindication  of  the  inspiration  and 
authority  of  the  Bible  against  attacks  made  on  scientific  grounds, 
and  the  relation  of  the  facts  and  truths  contained  in  the  Word 
of  God  to  the  principles,  methods,  or  aims  of  any  of  the  sciences. 

*'Upon  one  or  more  of  these  topics  a  course  of  ten  public  lec- 
tures shall  be  given  at  least  once  in  two  or  three  years  by  a  lec- 
turer ordinarily  to  be  chosen  two  years  in  advance  of  the  time 
for  the  delivery  of  the  lectures.  The  appointment  of  the  lecturer 
shall  be  by  the  concurrent  action  of  the  founder  of  the  lecture- 
ship during  his  life,  the  board  of  directors  and  the  faculty  of  the 
said  seminary. 

"The  funds  shall  be  securely  invested,  and  the  interest  of  the 
same  shall  be  devoted  to  the  payment  of  the  lecturer  and  to  the 
publication  of  the  lectures  within  a  year  after  the  delivery  of 
the  same. 

"The  copyright  of  the  lectures  shall  be  vested  in  the  seminary." 


APPENDIX 


The  following  documents  are  printed  to  indicate :  I.  The  possi- 
bilities of  true  reform.  11.  The  plan  actually  adopted.  III.  The 
inconsistencies  of  the  radicals  in  a  pretended  religious  emanci- 
pation.   IV.  The  final  compromise  and  its  defects. 

I 

MALOUET'S  PROPOSALS.    See  p.  92 

13  October,  1789 

Je  considere  d'abord  d'ou  proviennent  les  proprietes  appelees 
biens  du  clerge.  Qui  est-ce  qui  a  donne,  qui  est-ce  qui  a  regu, 
qui  est-ce  qui  possede?  Je  trouve  des  fondateurs  qui  instituent, 
des  eglises  qui  regoivent,  des  ecclesiastiques  qui  possedent  sous 
la  protection  de  la  loi.  Je  trouve  que  le  droit  du  donateur  n'est 
point  conteste ;  qu'il  a  stipule  les  conditions  de  sa  donation  avec 
une  partie  contractant  I'engagement  de  les  remplir ;  que  toutes 
ces  transactions  ont  rcgu  le  sceau  de  la  loi,  et  qu'il  en  resulte 
diverses  dotations  assignees  aux  frais  du  culte,  a  I'entretien  de 
ses  ministres,  et  au  soulagement  des  pauvres. 

Je  trouve  alors  que  ces  biens  sont  une  propriete  nationale,  en 
ce  qu'ils  appartiennent  collectivement  au  culte  et  aux  pauvres  de 
la  nation. 

Mais  chaque  beneficier  n'en  est  pas  moins  possesseur  legitime, 
en  acquittant  les  charges  et  conditions  de  la  fondation. 

Or,  la  possession,  la  disposition  des  revenus,  est  la  seule  espece 
de  propriete  qui  puisse  appartenir  au  sacerdoce,  c'est  la  seule  qu'il 
ait  jamais  reclamee. 

Celle  qui  donne  droit  a  I'alienation,  a  la  transmission  du  fonds 
par  heritage  ou  autrement,  ne  saurait  lui  convenir,  en  ce  qu'elle 
serait  destructive  des  dotations  de  I'Eglise;  et  parce  qu'elle  a  des 
proprietes  effectives,  il  fallait  bien  qu'elles  fussent  inalienables ; 

28s 


286 


APPENDIX 


pour  qu'elles  ne  devinssent  pas  excessives,  il  fallait  bien  en  limiter 
I'etendue ;  mais  comme  I'incapacite  d'acquerir  n'est  pas  celle  de 
posseder,  I'edit  de  1749  ne  pent  influer  siir  la  solution  de  la  ques- 
tion presente,  et  j'avoue  qu'il  me  parait  extraordinaire  qu'on 
eniploie  contre  le  clerge  les  litres  meme  conservateurs  de  ses  pro- 
prietes,  ainsi  que  toutes  les  raisons,  tous  les  motifs  qui  en  com- 
posent  le  caractere  legal. 

Un  des  preopinants  a  dit  que  les  corps  etaient  aptes  a  acquerir, 
a  conserver  des  proprietes,  mais  qu'elles  disparaissent  avec  leur 
existence ;  qu'ainsi  le  clerge,  ne  formant  plus  un  ordre  dans  I'Etat, 
ne  pouvait  etre  aujourd'hui  considere  comme  proprietaire. 

Mais  il  ne  s'agit  point  ici  de  biens  donnes  a  un  corps.  Les 
proprietes  de  I'Eglise  sont  subdivisees  en  autant  de  dotations  dis- 
tinctes  que  ses  ministres  ont  de  services  a  remplir ;  ainsi,  lors 
meme  qu'il  n'y  aurait  plus  d'assemblee  du  clerge,  tant  qu'il  y  aura 
des  paroisses,  des  eveches,  des  monasteres,  chacun  de  ces  etab- 
lissements  a  une  dotation  propre  qui  pent  etre  modifiee  par  la  loi, 
mais  non  detruite  autrement  qu'en  detruisant  I'etablissement. 

C'est  ici  le  lieu  de  remarquer  que  plusieurs  des  preopinants 
etablissent  des  principes  contradictoires,  en  tirant  neanmoins  les 
memes  consequences.  Tantot,  en  considerant  le  clerge  comme 
un  etre  moral,  on  a  dit:  les  corps  n'ont  aucun  droit  reel  par  leur 
nature,  puis  quits  n'ont  pas  meme  de  nature  propre,  ainsi  le  clerge 
ne  saurait  etre  proprietaire.  Tantot  on  le  considere  comme  dis- 
sous,  en  qualite  de  corps,  et  on  dit  qu'il  ne  pent  plus  posseder 
aujourd'hui  de  la  meme  maniere  qu'il  possedait  pendant  son 
existence  politique,  qui  lui  donnait  droit  a  la  propriete. 

Enfin,  un  troisieme  opinant  a  dit,  dans  une  suite  de  faits,  *'que 
le  clerge  n'a  jamais  possede  comme  corps;  que  chaque  fondation 
avait  eu  pour  objet  un  etablissement  et  un  service  particuliers," 
et  cette  assertion  est  exacte.  Mais  je  demande  si  Ton  pent  en 
conclure  qu'il  soit  juste  et  utile  que  cet  etablissement,  ce  service 
et  ceux  qui  le  remplissent  soient  depouilles  de  leur  dotation?  Or, 
c'est  le  veritable  et  la  seule  question  qu'il  faillait  presenter,  car 
celle  de  la  propriete  pour  les  usufruitiers  n'est  point  proble- 
matique.  Le  clerge  possede,  voila  le  fait.  Ses  titres  sont  sous  la 
protection,  sous  la  garde  et  la  disposition  de  la  nation;  car  elle 
dispose  de  tous  les  etablissements  publics,  par  le  droit  qu'elle  a 
sur  sa  propre  legislation  et  sur  le  culte  meme  qu'il  lui  plait 
d'adopter;  mais  la  nation  n'exerce  par  elle-meme  ni  ses  droits 
de  propriete,  ni  ceux  de  souverainete ;  et  de  meme  que  ses  rep- 
resentants  ne  pourraient  disposer  de  la  couronne  qui  lui  appar- 


APPENDIX 


287 


ticnt.  mais  seiilement  regler  I'cxercice  de  I'autorite  et  des  pre- 
rogatives royales,  dc  meme  aussi  ils  ne  poiirraient,  sans  un  man- 
dat  special,  aneantir  le  culte  public  et  les  dotations  qui  lui  sont  as- 
signees, mais  soulcment  en  regler  mieux  remploi.  en  reformer  les 
abus,  et  disposer  pour  les  besoins  publics  de  tout  ce  qui  se  trouve- 
rait  excedant  au  service  des  autels  et  au  soulagemcnt  des  pauvres. 

Ainsi,  Messieurs,  I'aveu  du  principe  que  les  biens  du  clerge  sont 
une  propriete  nationale  n'etablit  point  les  consequences  qu'on  en 
voudrait  tirer.  Et  comme  il  ne  s'agit  point  ici  d'etablir  une  vaine 
theorie  mais  une  doctrine  pratique  sur  les  biens  ecclesiastiques, 
c'est  sur  ce  principe  meme  que  je  fonde  mon  opinion  et  un  plan 
d'operations  different  de  celui  qui  vous  est  presente. 

Le  premier  apergu  de  la  motion  de  M.  I'eveque  d'Autun  m'a 
montre  plus  d'avantages  que  d'inconvenicnts ;  j'avoue  que  dans 
I'embarras  ou  nous  sommes,  1,800,000,000  disponibles  au  profit 
de  I'Etat  m'ont  seduit ;  mais  un  examen  plus  reflechi  m'a  fait  voir, 
a  cote  d'une  ressource  fort  exageree  des  inconvenients  graves, 
des  injustices  inevitables;  et  lorsque  je  me  suis  rappele  le  jour 
memorable  ou  nous  adjurames,  au  nom  du  Dieu  de  paix,  les 
membres  du  clerge  de  s'unir  a  nous  comme  nos  freres,  de  se  con- 
fier  a  notre  foi,  j'ai  fremi  du  sentiment  douloureux  qu'ils  pou- 
vaient  eprouver  et  transmettre  a  leurs  successeurs,  en  se  voyant 
depouilles  de  leurs  biens  par  un  decret  auquel  ils  n'auraient  pas 
consenti. 

Que  cette  consideration,  Messieurs,  dans  les  temps  orageux  ou 
nous  sommes,  soit  aupres  de  vous  de  quelque  poids.  C'est  pre- 
cisement  parce  qu'on  entend  dire  d'un  ton  menagant :  il  faiit 
prendre  les  biens  du  clerge,  que  nous  devons  etre  plus  disposes 
a  les  defendre,  plus  circonspects  dans  nos  decisions.  Ne  souf- 
frons  pas  qu'on  impute  quelque  jour  a  la  terreur,  a  la  violence, 
des  operations  qu'une  justice  exacte  pent  legitimer,  si  nous  leur 
en  imprimons  le  caractere,  et  qui  seront  plus  profitablcs  a  I'fitat 
si  nous  substituons  la  reforme  a  I'invasion  et  les  calculs  de  I'ex- 
perience  a  des  speculations  incertaines. 

La  nation.  Messieurs,  en  nous  donnant  ses  pouvoirs,  nous  a 
ordonne  de  lui  conserver  sa  religion  et  son  Roi ;  il  ne  dependrait 
pas  plus  de  nous  d'abolir  le  catholicisme  en  France  que  le  gou- 
vernement  monarchique ;  mais  la  nation  peut,  s'il  lui  plait,  detruire 
I'un  et  I'autre  non  par  des  instructions  partielles,  mais  par  un 
vceu  unanime,  legal,  solennel,  exprime  dans  toutes  les  subdivisions 
territoriales  du  royaume.  Alors  les  representants,  organe  de  cette 
volonte,  peuvcnt  la  mettre  a  execution. 


288 


APPENDIX 


Cette  volonte  generale  ne  s'est  point  manifestee  sur  I'invasion 
des  biens  du  clerge;  devons-nous  la  supposer,  la  prevenir?  Pou- 
vons-nous  resister  a  une  volonte  contraire  de  ne  pas  ebranler  les 
fondements  dti  ciilte  public?  pouvons-nous  tout  ce  que  peut  la 
nation,  et  plus  qu'elle  ne  pourrait? 

Je  m'arrete  a  cette  derniere  proposition,  parce  qu'en  y  repondant 
je  reponds  a  toutes  les  autres. 

S'il  plaisait  a  la  nation  de  detruire  I'Eglise  catholique  en  France, 
et  d'y  substituer  une  autre  religion  en  disposant  des  biens  actuels 
du  clerge,  la  nation,  pour  etre  juste,  serait  obligee  d'avoir  egard 
aux  intentions  expresses  des  donateurs,  comme  on  respecte  en 
toute  societe  celle  du  testateur ;  or  ce  qui  a  ete  donne  a  I'Eglise 
est,  par  indivis  et  par  substitution,  donne  aux  pauvres ;  ainsi  tant 
qu'il  y  aura  en  France  des  hommes  qui  ont  faim  et  soif,  les  biens 
de  rfiglise  leur  sont  substitues  par  I'intention  des  testateurs,  avant 
d'etre  reversibles  au  domaine  national ;  ainsi,  la  nation,  en  de- 
truisant  meme  le  clerge,  et  avant  de  s'emparer  de  ses  biens  pour 
toute  autre  destination,  doit  assurer  dans  tout  son  territoire,  et 
par  hypotheque  speciale  sur  ses  biens,  la  subsistance  des  pauvres. 

Je  sais  que  ce  moyen  de  defense  de  la  part  du  clerge,  tres- 
legitime  dans  le  droit,  peut  etre  attaque  dans  le  fait.  Tons  les 
possesseurs  de  benefices  ne  sont  pas  egalement  charitables,  tous 
ne  font  pas  scrupuleusement  le  part  des  pauvres. 

Eh  bien !  Messieurs  faisons-la  nous-memes.  Les  pauvres  sont 
aussi  nos  creanciers  dans  I'ordre  moral  comme  dans  I'etat  social 
et  politique.  Le  premier  germe  de  corruption,  dans  un  grand 
peuple,  c'est  la  misere :  le  plus  grand  ennemi  de  la  liberte,  des 
bonnes  moeurs,  c'est  la  misere ;  et  le  dernier  terme  de  I'avilisse- 
ment,  pour  un  homme  libre,  apres  le  crime,  c'est  la  mendicite. 
Detruisons  ce  fleau  qui  nous  degrade,  et  qu'a  la  suite  de  toutes 
nos  dissertations  sur  les  droits  de  I'homme,  une  loi  de  secours 
pour  I'homme  souffrant  soit  un  des  articles  religieux  de  notre 
Constitution. 

Les  biens  du  clerge  nous  en  offrent  les  moyens  en  conservant 
la  dime,  qui  ne  peut  etre  abandonnee  dans  le  plan  meme  de  M. 
I'eveque  d'Autun,  et  qui  cesserait  d'etre  odieuse  au  peuple,  lors- 
qu'il  y  verrait  la  perspective  d'un  soulagement  certain  dans  sa 
detresse. 

Je  ne  developperai  point  ici  le  plan  de  secours  pour  les  pauvres, 
tel  que  je  le  congois  dans  toute  son  etendue;  je  remarquerai  seule- 
ment  qu'en  reunissant  sous  un  meme  regime,  dans  chaque  pro- 
vince, les  aumones  volontaires  a  des  fonds  assignes  sur  la  percep- 


APPENDIX 


289 


tion  des  dimes,  on  pourrait  facilement  soutenir  I'industrie  languis- 
sante,  prevenir  ou  soiilager  I'indigence  dans  tout  le  royaiime. 

Et  quelle  operation  plus  importante,  Messieurs,  pent  solliciter 
notre  zele?  Cet  etablissement  de  premiere  necessite  ne  manque- 
t-il  pas  a  la  nation?  les  lois  sur  les  proprietes  remontent  a  la  fon- 
dation  des  empires,  et  les  lois  en  faveur  de  ceux  qui  ne  possedent 
rien  sont  encore  a  faire. 

Je  voudrais  done  Her  la  cause  des  pauvres  a  celle  des  creanciers 
de  I'Etat,  qui  auront  une  hypotheque  encore  plus  assuree  sur 
Taisance  generale  du  peuple  frangais  que  sur  les  biens-fonds  du 
clerge,  et  je  voudrais  surtout  que  les  sacrifices  a  faire  par  ce 
corps  respectable  fussent  tellement  compatibles  avec  la  dignite  et 
les  droits  de  I'Eglise,  que  ses  representants  pussent  y  consentir 
librement, 

Ces  sacrifices  deviennent  necessaires  pour  satisfaire  a  tous  les 
besoins  qui  nous  pressent,  et  je  mets  au  premier  rang  de  ces 
besoins  le  secours  urgent  a  donner  a  la  multitude  d'hommes  qui 
manquent  de  subsistance. 

Ces  sacrifices  sont  indispensables  sous  un  autre  rapport :  si  la 
severite  des  reformes  ne  s'etendait  que  sur  le  clerge,  ce  serait 
un  abus  de  puissance  revoltant ;  mais  lorsque  les  premieres  places 
de  I'administration  et  de  I'armee  seront  reduites  a  des  traitements 
moderes,  lorsque  les  graces  non  meritees,  les  emplois  inutiles 
seront  reformes,  le  clerge  n'a  point  a  se  plaindre  de  subir  la  loi 
commune,  loi  salutaire,  si  nous  voulons  etre  libres. 

Enfin,  ces  sacrifices  sont  justes;  car  au  nombre  des  objections 
presentees  contre  le  clerge,  il  en  est  d'une  grande  importance : 
c'est  la  compensation  de  I'impot,  dont  il  s'est  affranchi  pendant 
nombre  d'annees. 

La  liberte.  Messieurs,  est  une  plante  precieuse  qui  devient  un 
arbre  robuste  sur  un  sol  feconde  par  le  travail  et  la  vertu,  mais 
qui  languit  et  perit  entre  le  luxe  et  la  misere.  Oui,  certes,  il  faut 
reformer  nos  mceurs  encore  plus  que  nos  lois,  si  nous  voulons 
conserver  cette  grande  conquete, 

Mais  s'il  est  possible,  s'il  est  raisonnable  de  faire  des  a  present 
dans  I'emploi  des  biens  ecclesiastiques  d'utiles  reformes,  de  de- 
doubler  les  riches  benefices  accumules  sur  une  meme  tete,  de 
supprimer  les  abbayes  a  mesure  qu'elles  vaqueront,  de  reduire 
le  nombre  des  eveches,  des  chapitres,  des  monasteres,  des  prieures 
et  de  tous  les  benefices  simples,  I'alienation  generale  des  biens 
du  clerge  me  parait  impossible.  J'estime  qu'elle  ne  serait  ni  juste, 
ni  utile. 


290 


APPENDIX 


Si  I'operation  est  partielle  et  successive  a  mesure  des  extinctions 
ou  des  reunions,  je  n'entends  pas  comment  elle  remplirait  le 
plan  de  M.  I'eveque  d'Autun,  comment  pourraient  s'effectuer 
le  remplacement  de  la  gabelle,  le  remboursement  des  offices  de 
judicature,  celui  des  anticipations,  des  payements  arrieres  qui  exi- 
gent, pour  nous  mettre  au  courant,  une  somnie  de  400  millions. 
J'estime  que  toutes  les  ventes  partielles  et  successives  ne  pour- 
raient s'operer  en  moins  de  trente  annees,  en  ne  deplagant  pas 
violemment  les  titulaires  et  les  usufruitiers  actuels,  et  en  obser- 
vant de  ne  pas  mettre  a  la  fois  en  circulation  une  trop  grande 
masse  de  biens-fonds,  ce  que  en  avilirait  le  prix. 

L'operation  sera-t-elle  generale  et  subite?  Je  n'en  concois  pas 
les  moyens,  a  moins  de  congedier  a  la  fois  tons  les  beneficiers, 
tous  les  religieux  actuels,  en  leur  assignant  des  pensions.  Eh ! 
qui  pourrait  acheter?  Comment  payer  une  aussi  grande  quantite 
de  biens-fonds  ?  On  recevra,  dit-on,  des  porteurs  de  creances  sur  le 
Roi ;  mais  on  ne  fait  pas  attention,  qu'aussitot  que  la  dette  pub- 
lique  sera  consolidee,  il  n'y  aura  point  de  capitaux  plus  recher- 
ches,  parce  qu'il  n'y  en  aura  pas  de  plus  productifs  ;  ainsi,  peu  de 
creanciers  se  presenteront  comme  adjudicataires. 

Croit-on  d'ailleurs  que  la  liquidation  des  dettes  de  chaque  corps 
ecclesiastique  n'entrainera  pas  des  incidents,  des  oppositions  et 
des  delais  dans  les  adjudications,  et  que  I'adoption  d'un  tel  plan 
n'occasionnera  pas  tres-promptement  la  degradation  de  ces  biens, 
par  le  decouragement  qu'eprouveraient  les  proprietaires,  fermiers, 
exploitants  actuels? 

*Si  dans  ce  systeme  il  n'y  avait  ni  difficulte  ni  injustice,  relative- 
ment  au  clerge,  e'en  serait  une.  Messieurs,  que  de  faire  dis- 
paraitre  le  patrimoine  des  pauvres,  avant  de  I'avoir  remplace  d'une 
maniere  certaine. 

Qu'il  me  soit  permis  de  rappeler  ici  toute  la  rigueur  des  prin- 
cipes ;  pouvons  nous  aneantir  cette  substitution  solennelle  des 
biens  de  I'Eglise  en  faveur  des  pauvres? 

Pouvons-nous,  sans  etre  bien  surs  du  voeu  national,  supprimer 
generalement  tous  les  monasteres,  tous  les  ordres  religieux,  meme 
ceux  qui  se  consacrent  a  I'education  de  la  jeunesse,  aux  soins  des 
malades,  et  ceux  qui  par  d'utiles  travaux  ont  bien  merite  de  I'Eglise 
et  de  I'Etat?  Pouvons-nous,  politiquement  et  moralement,  oter 
tout  espoir,  tous  moyens  de  retraite  a  ceux  de  nos  concitoyens 
dent  les  principes  religieux,  ou  les  prejuges  ou  les  malheurs,  leur 
font  envisager  cet  asile  comme  une  consolation? 

Pouvons-nous  et  devons-nous  reduire  les  eveques,  les  cures,  a 


APPENDIX 


291 


la  qualite  de  pensionnaires  ?  La  dignite  eminente  des  premiers,  le 
ministere  venerable  des  pasteurs,  n'exigent-ils  pas  de  leur  con- 
server,  et  a  tons  les  ministres  des  autels.  les  droits  et  les  signes 
distinctifs  de  citoyens,  au  nombre  desquels  est  essentiellement  la 
propriete  ? 

Je  crois,  Messieurs,  etre  en  droit  de  repondre  negativement  a 
loutes  ces  questions. 

1°  L'alienation  generale  des  biens  du  clerge  est  une  des  plus 
grandes  innovations  politiques,  et  je  crois  que  nous  n'avons  ni  des 
pouvoirs,  ni  des  motifs  suflisants  pour  I'operer. 

On  vous  a  deja  represente  qu'une  guerre  malheureuse.  une  in- 
vasion de  I'ennemi,  pourrait  mettre  en  peril  la  subsistance  des 
ecclesiastiques,  lors  qu'elle  ne  serait  plus  fondee  sur  des  im- 
meubles,  et  cette  consideration  doit  etre  d'un  grand  poids.  rela- 
tivement  a  I'Eglise,  et  relativement  aux  pauvres  que  lui  sont 
afRlies. 

On  objecte  que  I'etat  ecclesiastique  est  une  profession  qui  doit 
etre  salariee  comme  celle  de  magistrat,  de  militaire ;  mais  on 
oublie  que  ces  deux  classes  de  citoyens  ont  assez  generalement 
d'autres  moyens  de  subsistance;  que  les  soldats  reduits  a  leur  paye 
n'en  sauraient  manquer  tant  qu'ils  sont  armes. 

Mais  quelle  sera  la  ressource  des  ministres  des  autels,  si  le 
Tresor  public  est  dans  I'impuissance  de  satisfaire  a  tout  autre 
engagement  que  la  solde  de  Tarmee  ?  et  combien  de  chances  mal- 
heureuses  peuvent  momcntanement  produire  de  tels  embarras  ! 

2"  En  vendant  actuellement  tous  les  biens  du  clerge,  la  nation 
se  prive  de  la  plus-value  graduelle  qu'ils  acquerront  par  le  laps 
de  temps,  et  elle  prepare,  dans  une  proportion  inverse,  I'augmen- 
tation  de  ses  charges. 

3°  Je  doute  que  I'universalite  du  peuple  frangais  approuve  I'ane- 
antissement  de  tous  les  monasteres  sans  distinction.  La  re- 
forme,  la  suppression  des  ordres  inutiles.  des  convents  trop 
nombreux.  est  necessaire ;  mais  peut-etre  que  chaque  province  ct 
meme  chaque  ville  desirera  conserver  une  ou  deux  maisons  de 
retraite  pour  I'un  et  I'autre  sexe. 

4°  II  est  impossible  que  chaque  diocese  ne  conserve  au  moins  un 
seminaire,  un  chapitre  et  une  maison  de  repos  pour  les  cures  et 
les  vicaires  qui  ne  peuvent  continuer  leur  service. 

Si  Ton  ajoutait  a  toutes  ces  considerations  celle  de  I'augmenta- 
tion  necessaire  des  portions  congrues,  et  enfin.  s'il  vous  parait 
juste,  comme  je  le  pense,  de  ne  deposseder  aucun  titulaire,  non- 
seulement  la  vente  generale  des  biens  du  clerge  devient  actuelle- 


292 


APPENDIX 


ment  impossible,  mais  meme  dans  aucun  temps  il  ne  serait  profi- 
table d'en  aliener  au  dela  d'une  somme  determinee,  que  j'estime 
eventuellement  au  cinquieme  ou  au  quart ;  et  le  remplacement  de 
cette  alienation  doit  etre  rigoureusement  fait  au  profit  des  pauvres 
dans  des  temps  plus  heureux ;  car  selon  tous  les  principes  de  la 
justice,  de  la  morale  et  du  droit  positif,  les  biens  du  clerge  ne 
sont  disponibles  que  pour  le  culte  public  ou  pour  les  pauvres. 

Si  ces  observations  sont,  comme  je  le  crois,  demontrees,  il  en 
resulte : 

1°  Que,  quoique  les  biens  du  clerge  soient  une  propriete  na- 
tionale,  le  Corps  legislatif  ne  peut,  sans  un  mandat  special,  con- 
vertir  en  pensionnaire  de  I'Etat  une  classe  de  citoyens  que  la 
volonte  interieure  et  speciale  de  la  nation  a  rendus  possesseurs  de 
biens-fonds,  a  des  charges  et  conditions  determinees. 

2"  Que  I'emploi  de  ces  biens  peut  etre  regie  par  le  Corps  legis- 
latif, de  telle  maniere  qu'ils  remplissent  le  mieux  possible  leur 
destination,  qui  est  le  culte  public,  I'entretien  honorable  de  ses 
ministres  et  le  soulagement  des  pauvres. 

3°  Que  si,  par  la  meilleure  distribution  de  ces  biens  et  par  une 
organisation  mieux  entendue  du  corps  ecclesiastique,  les  ministres 
de  I'Eglise  peuvent  etre  entretenus  et  les  pauvres  secourus,  de 
maniere  qu'il  y  ait  un  excedant,  le  Corps  legislatif  peut  en  disposer 
pour  les  besoins  pressants  de  I'Etat. 

Maintenant,  Messieurs,  la  transition  de  ces  resultats  a  une  ope- 
ration definitive  sur  les  biens  du  clerge  est  necessairement  un 
examen  reflechi  des  etablissements  ecclesiastiques  actuellement 
subsistants,  de  ce  qu'il  est  indispensable  d'en  conserver,  de  ce 
qu'il  est  utile  de  reformer. 

II  faut  ensuite  fixer  les  depenses  du  culte  et  de  I'entretien  des 
ministres,  proportionellement  a  leur  dignite,  a  leur  service,  et 
relativement  encore  a  I'intention  qu'ont  eue  les  fondateurs  des 
divers  benefices.  Cette  fixation  determinee  doit  etre  comparee 
aux  biens  effectifs  du  clerge,  leur  produit  en  terres,  rentes,  mai- 
sons,  et  a  leurs  charges  d'apres  des  etats  authentiques. 

Alors,  Messieurs,  apres  un  travail  exact  et  un  classement  cer- 
tain des  rentes  et  des  depenses,  des  individus,  des  etablissements 
conserves,  apres  avoir  assigne  dans  de  justes  proportions,  ce  qu'il 
est  convenable  d'accorder  aux  grandes  dignites  et  aux  moindres 
ministeres  de  I'Eglise,  ce  qui  doit  etre  reserve  dans  chaque  canton 
pour  I'assistance  des  pauvres ;  alors  seulement  vous  connaitrez 
tout  ce  que  vous  pouvez  destiner  aux  besoins  de  I'Etat ;  mais  ils 
sont  actuellement  si  pressants,  que  j'ai  cru  pouvoir,  par  des  opera- 


APPENDIX 


293 


tions  provisoires,  determiner  une  somme  de  secours,  soit  pour  les 
pauvres,  soit  pour  les  depenses  publiques. 

En  estimant  a  160  millions,  y  compris  les  dimes,  le  revenu  du 
clerge,  je  pense  que  les  reformes,  suppressions  et  reductions  pos- 
sibles permettent  de  prelever  une  somme  annuelle  de  30  millions 
pour  les  pauvres,  et  une  alienation  successive  de  400  millions 
d'immeubles,  qui  serait,  des  ce  moment-ci,  le  gage  d'une  somme 
pareille  de  credit  ou  d'assignation. 

Cette  ressource  etant  estimee  suffisante,  d'apres  le  rapport  du 
comite  des  finances,  pour  eteindre  toutes  les  anticipations  et  ar- 
rerages  de  payement,  et  la  balance  etant  ainsi  retablie  avec  avan- 
tage  entre  la  recette  et  la  depense,  la  vente  des  domaines  libres 
et  la  surtaxe  en  plus-value  de  ceux  engages  faciliteraient  tous  les 
plans  d'amelioration  dans  le  regime  des  impots,  et  suffiraient  en 
partie  au  remboursement  des  offices  de  judicature. 

Je  resumerai  done  dans  les  articles  suivants  les  dispositions  que 
je  crois  actuellement  praticablcs  relativement  aux  biens  du  clerge. 

J'observe  que  je  n'entre  dans  aucun  des  details  qui  doivent  etre 
I'objet  du  travail  de  la  commission  ecclesiastique,  tels  que  I'aug- 
mentation  indispensable  des  portions  congrues ;  mais  on  concevra 
qu'elle  ne  pent  s'effectuer  actuellement  que  par  des  reductions  sur 
les  jouissances  des  grands  beneficiers. 

La  maniere  d'operer  ces  reductions  ne  doit  point  etre  arbitraire 
ni  violente ;  il  me  semble  que,  sans  deposseder  aucuns  titulaires,  on 
peut  etablir  des  fixations  precises  de  revenus  sur  toutes  les  classes 
du  ministere  ecclesiastique,  et  tout  ce  qui  excederait  cette  fixation 
sera  paye  en  contributions,  soit  pour  le  Tresor  public,  soit  pour 
toute  autre  destination. 


Articles  Proposes 

Art.  I".  Les  biens  du  clerge  sont  une  propriete  nationale  dont 
I'emploi  sera  regie  conformement  a  sa  destination,  qui  est  le 
service  des  autels,  I'entretien  des  ministres  et  le  soulagement  des 
pauvres. 

Art.  2.  Ces  objets  remplis,  I'excedant  sera  consacre  aux  besoins 
de  I'Etat,  a  la  decharge  de  la  classe  la  moins  aisee  des  citoyens. 

Art.  3.  Pour  connaitre  I'excedant  des  biens  du  clerge  disponible 
et  applicable  aux  besoins  publics,  il  sera  forme  une  commission 
ecclesiastique,  a  I'effet  de  determiner  le  nombre  d'eveches,  cures, 
chapitres,  seminaires  et  monasteres  qui  doivent  etre  conserves, 


294 


APPENDIX 


ct  pour  regler  1?.  quantite  de  biens-fonds,  maisons  et  revenus  qui 
doivent  etre  assignes  a  chacun  de  ces  etablissements. 

Art.  4.  Tout  ce  qui  ne  sera  pas  juge  utile  au  service  divin  et  a 
I'instruction  des  peuples  sera  supprime,  et  les  biens-fonds,  rentes, 
mobiliers  et  imnieubles  desdits  etablissements  seront  remis  a  I'ad- 
ministration  des  provinces  dans  lesquelles  ils  sont  situes. 

Art.  5.  En  attendant  I'effet  des  dispositions  precedantes,  et  pour 
y  concourir,  il  sera  sursis  a  la  nomination  de  toutes  les  abbayes, 
canonicats  et  benefices  simples,  dependant  des  collateurs  particu- 
liers,  jusqua  ce  que  le  nombre  des  chapitres  et  celui  des  pre- 
bendes  a  conserver  soit  determine. 

Art.  6.  II  est  aussi  defendu  a  tous  les  ordres  religieux  des  deux 
sexes  de  recevoir  des  novices,  jusqu'a  ce  que  chaque  province  ait 
fait  connaitre  le  nombre  de  monasteres  qu'elle  desire  conserver. 

Art.  7.  La  conventualite  de  chaque  monastere  de  I'un  et  I'autre 
sexe  sera  fixee  a  douze  profes,  et  il  sera  procede  a  la  reunion  de 
toutes  les  maisons  d'un  meme  ordre,  qui  n'auront  pas  le  nombre 
de  profes  prescrit  par  le  present  article;  les  maisons  ainsi  va- 
cantes  par  reunion  seront  remises  a  I'administration  des  pro- 
vinces. 

Art.  8.  Tous  les  batiments  et  terrains,  autres  que  ceux  d'habi- 
tation,  non  compris  dans  les  biens  ruraux  des  eglises,  monasteres, 
hopitaux  et  benefices  quelconques  seront,  des  a  present,  vendus 
par  les  administrations  provinciales,  et  il  sera  tenu  compte  de 
leur  produit,  a  raison  de  5%,  a  ceux  desdits  etablissements  qui 
seront  conserves :  le  prix  des  immeubles  ainsi  vendus  sera  con- 
serve dans  la  caisse  nationale ;  et  lors  de  I'extinction  des  rentes 
consenties  pour  raison  desdites  alienations,  la  somme  en  sera  em- 
ployee a  la  decharge  des  contribuables  de  la  meme  province  qui 
auront  moins  de  100  ecus  de  rente. 

Art.  9.  Aucun  autre  bien  vacant  par  I'effet  des  dispositions 
ci-dessus  ne  pourra  etre  mis  en  vente  jusqua  ce  qu'il  ait  ete 
pourvu  dans  chaque  province  a  la  dotation  suffisante  de  tous  les 
etablissements  ecclesiastiques,  a  I'augmentation  des  portions  con- 
grues,  et  a  la  fondation,  dans  chaque  ville  et  bourg,  d'une  caisse 
de  charite  pour  le  soulagement  des  pauvres. 

Art.  10.  Aussitot  qu'il  aura  ete  pourvu  a  toutes  les  dotations 
et  fondations  enoncees  ci-dessus,  les  dimes  dont  jouissent  les 
differents  beneficiers  cesseront  de  leur  etre  payees,  et  continueront 
jusqu'a  nouvel  ordre  a  etre  pergues  par  les  administrations  pro- 
vinciales, et  municipals  en  deduction  des  charges  imposees  aux 
classes  les  moins  aisees  de  citoyens. 


APPENDIX 


295 


Art.  II.  II  sera  preleve  siir  le  produit  des  dimes  et  des  biens  du 
clerge  reunis  aiix  administrations  provinciales  une  somme  an- 
nuelle  de  26  millions  pour  faire  face  aux  interets  de  la  dette  an- 
cienne  du  clerge,  et  d'un  nouveau  credit  de  400  millions,  lequci 
sera  ouvert  incessamment,  avec  hypotheque  speciale  sur  la  totalite 
des  biens  ecclesiastiques. 

II 

CIVIL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  CLERGY.    See  p.  126 
12  July,  1790 

L'AssEMBLEE  nationale,  apres  avoir  entendu  le  rapport  de  son 
Comite  ecclesiastique,  a  decrete  et  decrete  ce  qui  suit,  commc  ar- 
ticles constitutionnels: 

TITRE  PREMIER 

Des  offices  ecclesiastiques 

Article  Premier.  Chaque  departement  formera  un  seul  diocese, 
qui  aura  la  meme  etendue  et  les  memes  limites  que  le  departe- 
ment. 

Art.  2.  Les  sieges  des  eveches  des  quatre-vingt-trois  departe- 
ments  du  royaume  seront  fixes,  a  savoir:  (Here  follows  a  list  of 
the  towns  in  which  the  bishops  have  their  residences.) 

Tons  les  autres  eveches  existant  dans  les  quatre-vingt-trois 
departements  du  royaume,  et  qui  ne  sont  pas  nommement  compris 
au  present  article,  sont  et  demeurent  supprimes. 

Art.  3.  Le  royaume  sera  divise  en  dix  arrondissements  metro- 
politains,  dont  les  sieges  seront:  Rouen,  Reims,  Besangon,  Rennes, 
Paris,  Bourges,  Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  Aix  et  Lyon. 

Ces  metropoles  auront  la  denomination  suivante : 

Celle  de  Rouen  sera  appelee.  metropole  des  cotes  de  la  Manche 

Cclle  de  Reims   metropole  du  Nord-Est 

Celle  de  Besangon   metropole  de  I'Est 

Celle  de  Rennes   metropole  du  Nord-Ouest 

Celle  de  Paris   metropole  de  Paris 

Celle  de  Bourges   metropole  du  Centre 


296 


APPENDIX 


Celle  de  Bordeaux 
Celle  de  Toulouse. 
Celle  d'Aix  


metropole  du  Sud-Ouest 

metropole  du  Sud 

metropole  des  cotes  de  la  Medi- 


Celle  de  Lyon 


terranee 
metropole  du  Sud-Est 


Art.  4.  L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  des  cotes  de  la 
Manche  comprendra  les  eveches  des  departements  de  la  Seine- 
Inferieure,  du  Calvados,  de  la  Manche,  de  I'Orne,  de  I'Eure,  de 
rOise,  de  la  Somme,  du  Pas-de-Calais. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Nord-Est  comprendra  les 
eveches  des  departements  de  la  Marne,  de  la  Meuse,  de  la 
Meurthe,  de  la  Moselle,  des  Ardennes,  de  I'Aisne,  du  Nord. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  de  I'Est  comprendra  les 
eveches  des  departements  du  Doubs,  du  Haut-Rhin,  du  Bas- 
Rhin,  des  Vosges,  de  la  Haute-Saone,  de  la  Haute-Marne,  de  la 
Cote-d'Or,  du  Jura. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Nord-Ouest  comprendra 
les  eveches  des  departements  de  I'llle-et-Vilaine,  des  C6tes-du- 
Nord,  du  Finistere,  du  Morbihan,  de  la  Loire-Inferieure,  de 
Mayenne-et-Loire,  de  la  Sarthe,  de  la  Mayenne. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  de  Paris  comprendra  les 
eveches  de  Paris,  de  Seine-et-Oise,  d'Eure-et-Loir,  du  Loiret,  de 
I'Yonne,  de  I'Aube,  de  Seine-et-Marne. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Centre  comprendra  les 
eveches  du  departement  du  Cher,  de  Loir-et-Cher,  de  I'lndre-et- 
Loire,  de  la  Vienne,  de  I'lndre,  de  la  Creuse,  de  I'Allier,  de  la 
Nievre. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Sud-Ouest  comprendra 
les  eveches  des  departements  de  la  Gironde,  de  la  Vendee,  de 
la  Charente-Inferieure,  des  Landes,  du  Lot-et-Garonne,  de  la 
Dordogne,  de  la  Correze,  de  la  Haute- Vienne,  de  la  Charente  et 
des  Deux-Sevres. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Sud  comprendra  les 
eveches  des  departements  de  la  Haute-Garonne,  du  Gers,  des 
Basses-Pyrenees,  des  Hautes-Pyrenees,  de  I'Ariege,  des  Pyrenees- 
Orientales,  de  I'Aude,  de  I'Aveyron,  du  Lot,  du  Tarn. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  des  cotes  de  la  Mediterranee 
comprendra  les  eveches  des  departements  des  Bouches-du-Rhone, 
de  la  Corse,  du  Var,  des  Basses-Alpes,  des  Hautes-Alpes,  de  la 
Drome,  de  la  Lozere,  du  Gard  et  de  I'Herault. 

L'arrondissement  de  la  metropole  du  Sud-Est  comprendra  les 


APPENDIX 


29; 


eveches  des  departements  de  Rhone-et-Loire.  du  Puy-de-D6me. 
du  Cantal.  de  la  Haute-Loire.  de  TArdeche.  de  I'lsere.  de  TAin, 
de  Saone-et-Loire. 

.\iiT.  5.  II  est  defendu  a  toute  eglise  ou  paroisse  de  France  et 
a  tout  citoyen  franqais.  de  reconnaitre  en  aucun  cas.  et  sous 
quelque  pretexte  que  ce  soit,  I'autorite  d'un  eveque,  ordinaire  ou 
metropolitain,  dont  le  siege  serait  etabli  sous  la  domination  d'une 
puissance  etrangere,  ni  celle  de  ses  delegues  residant  en  France 
ou  ailleurs:  le  tout  sans  prejudice  de  I'unite  de  foi  et  de  la  com- 
munion qui  sera  entretenue  avec  le  chef  visible  de  I'Eglise  uni- 
verselle,  ainsi  qu'il  sera  dit  ci-apres. 

Art.  6.  Lorsque  I'eveque  diocesain  aura  prononce  dans  son 
s>-node  sur  des  raatieres  de  sa  competence,  il  y  aura  lieu  au  re- 
cours  au  metropolitain,  lequel  prononcera  dans  le  sjTiode  metro- 
politain. 

Art.  7.  II  sera  procede  incessamment,  et  sur  I'avis  de  I'eveque 
et  de  I'administration  des  districts,  a  une  nouvelle  formation  et 
circonscription  de  toutes  les  paroisses  du  royaume.  Le  nombre 
et  Tetendue  en  seront  determines  d'apres  les  regies  qui  vont 
etre  etablies. 

Art.  8.  L'eglise  cathedrale  de  chaque  diocese  sera  ramenee  a 
son  etat  primitif  d'etre  en  meme  temps  eglise  paroissiale  et  eglise 
episcopale.  par  la  suppression  des  paroisses  et  le  demembrement 
des  habitations  qu'il  sera  juge  convenable  d'y  reunir. 

Art.  9.  La  paroisse  episcopale  n'aura  pas  d'autre  pasteur  im- 
mediat  que  I'eveque :  tous  les  pretres  qui  y  seront  etablis  seront 
ses  vicaires  et  en  feront  les  fonctions. 

Art.  10.  II  y  aura  seize  vicaires  de  l'eglise  cathedrale  dans  les 
villes  qui  comprendront  plus  de  10,000  ames.  et  douze  seulement 
dans  celles  ou  la  population  sera  au-dessous  de  10.000  ames. 

Art.  II.  II  sera  conserve  ou  etabli  dans  chaque  diocese  un  seul 
seminaire  pour  la  preparation  aux  ordres.  sans  entendre  rien 
prejuger.  quant  a  present,  sur  les  autres  maisons  d'instruction  et 
d'education. 

Art.  12.  Le  seminaire  sera  etabli.  autant  que  faire  se  pourra. 
pres  de  l'eglise  cathedrale  et  meme  dans  I'enceinte  des  batiments 
destines  a  I'habitation  de  I'eveque. 

Art.  13.  Pour  la  conduite  et  I'instniction  des  jeunes  eleves 
re<;us  dans  le  seminaire.  il  y  aura  un  vicaire  superieur  et  trois 
vicaires  directeurs  subordonnes  a  I'eveque. 

Art.  14.  Les  vicaires  superieurs  et  vicaires  directeurs  seront 
tenus  d'assister  avec  les  jeunes  eleves  ecclesiastiques  du  seminaire 


298 


APPENDIX 


a  tous  les  offices  de  la  paroisse  cathedrale  et  d"y  faire  toutes  les 
fonctions  dont  I'eveque  et  son  vicaire  jiigeront  a  propos  de  les 
charger. 

Art.  15.  Les  vicaires  des  eglises  cathedrales,  les  vicaires  supe- 
rieurs  et  vicaires  directeurs  du  seminaire  formeront  ensemble  le 
conseil  habituel  et  permanent  de  I'eveque,  qui  ne  pourra  faire 
aucun  acte  de  juridiction,  en  ce  qui  concerne  le  gouvernement 
du  diocese  et  du  seminaire,  qu'apres  en  avoir  delibere  avec  eux. 
Pourra  neanmoins  I'eveque,  dans  le  cours  de  ses  visites,  rendre 
seul  telles  ordonnances  provisoires  qu'il  appartiendra. 

Art.  16.  Dans  toutes  les  villes  et  bourgs  qui  ne  comprendront 
pas  plus  de  6000  ames,  il  n'y  aura  qu'une  seule  paroisse ;  les  autres 
paroisses  seront  supprimees  et  reunies  a  I'eglise  principale. 

Art.  17.  Dans  les  villes  oii  il  y  aura  plus  de  6000  ames,  chaque 
paroisse  pourra  comprendre  un  plus  grand  nombre  de  paroissiens, 
et  il  en  sera  conserve  autant  que  les  besoins  des  peuples  et  des 
localites  le  demanderont. 

Art.  18.  Les  assemblies  administratives,  de  concert  avec 
I'eveque  diocesain,  designeront  a  la  prochaine  legislature  les 
paroisses,  annexes  ou  succursales  des  villes  ou  des  campagnes 
qu'il  conviendra  de  reserver  ou  d'etendre,  d'etablir  ou  de  sup- 
primer,  et  ils  en  indiqueront  les  arrondissements,  d'apres  ce  que 
demanderont  les  besoins  des  peuples,  la  dignite  du  culte  et  les 
differentes  localites. 

Art.  19.  Les  assemblees  legislatives  et  I'eveque  diocesain  pour- 
ront  meme.  apres  avoir  arrete  entre  eux  la  suppression  et  reunion 
d'une  paroisse,  convenir  que,  dans  les  lieux  ecartes,  ou  qui,  pen- 
dant une  partie  de  I'annee,  ne  communiqueraient  que  difficile- 
ment  avec  I'eglise  paroissiale,  il  sera  etabli  ou  conserve  une  cha- 
pelle,  ou  le  cure  enverra  les  jours  de  fetes  et  dimanches  un  vicaire 
pour  y  dire  la  messe  et  faire  au  peuple  les  instructions  necessaires. 

La  reunion  qui  pourra  se  faire  d'une  paroisse  a  une  autre 
emportera  toujours  la  reunion  des  biens  de  la  fabrique  de  I'eglise 
supprimee  a  la  fabrique  de  I'eglise  ou  se  fera  la  reunion. 

Art.  20.  Tous  titres  et  offices,  autres  que  ceux  mentionnes  en 
la  presente  constitution,  les  dignites,  canonicats,  prebendes,  demi- 
prebendes,  chapelles,  chapellenies,  tant  des  eglises  cathedrales  que 
des  eglise  collegiales,  et  tous  chapitres,  reguliers  et  seculiers,  de 
I'un  et  I'autre  sexe,  les  abbayes  et  prieures  en  regie  ou  en  com- 
mende,  aussi  de  Tun  et  I'autre  sexe,  et  tous  autres  benefices  et 
prestimonies  generalement  quelconques,  de  quelque  nature  et  sous 
quelque  denomination  que  ce  soit,  sont,  a  compter  du  jour  de  la 


APPENDIX 


299 


publication  du  present  decret,  eteints  et  siipprimes,  sans  qu'il 
puisse  jamais  en  etre  etablis  de  semblables. 

Art.  21.  Tons  les  benefices  en  patronage  laique  sont  soumis  a 
toutes  les  dispositions  des  decrets  concernant  les  benefices  de 
pleine  collation  011  de  patronage  ecclesiastique. 

Art.  22.  Sont  pareillement  compris  auxdites  dispositions  tons 
titres  et  fondations  de  pleine  collation  laicale,  excepte  les  chapelles 
actuellement  desservies  dans  I'enceinte  des  maisons  particulieres 
par  un  chapelain  ou  desservant,  a  la  seule  disposition  du  pro- 
prietaire. 

Art.  23.  Le  contenu  dans  les  articles  precedents  aura  lieu,  non- 
obstant  toutes  clauses,  meme  de  reversion,  apposees  dans  les  actes 
de  fondation. 

Art.  24.  Les  fondations  de  messes  et  autres  services  acquittes 
presentement  dans  les  eglises  paroissiales  par  les  cures  et  par  les 
pretres  qui  y  sont  attaches,  sans  etre  pourvus  de  leurs  places  en 
titre  perpetuel  de  benefices,  continueront  provisoirement  a  etre 
acquittes  et  payes  comme  par  le  passe,  sans  neanmoins  que,  dans 
les  eglises  ou  il  est  etabli  des  societes  de  pretres  non  pourvus  du 
titre  perpetuel  de  benefices  et  connus  sous  les  divers  noms  de 
filleuls,  agreges,  familiers,  communalistes,  mipartistes,  chape- 
lains  ou  autres,  ceux  d'entre  eux  qui  viendront  a  mourir  ou  a  se 
retirer  puissent  etre  remplaces. 

Art.  25.  Les  fondations  faites  pour  subvenir  a  I'education  des 
parents  des  fondateurs  continueront  d'etre  executees.  conforme- 
ment  aux  dispositions  ecrites  dans  les  titres  et  fondations.  et,  a 
regard  des  autres  fondations  pieuses.  les  parties  interessees  pre- 
senteront  leurs  memoires  aux  assemblees  de  departement,  pour, 
sur  leur  avis  et  celui  de  I'eveque  diocesain,  etre  statue  par  le 
corps  legislatif  sur  leur  conservation  ou  leur  remplacement. 

TITRE  II 

Nomination  aux  offices  ecclcsiastiqiics 

Article  Premier.  A  compter  du  jour  de  la  publication  du  pre- 
sent decret,  on  ne  connaitra  qu'une  seule  maniere  de  pourvoir  aux 
eveches  et  aux  cures,  c'est  a  savoir  la  forme  des  elections. 

Art.  2.  Toutes  les  elections  se  feront  par  la  voie  du  scrutin  et 
a  la  pluralite  absolue  des  suffrages. 

Art.  3.  L'election  des  eveques  se  fera  dans  la  forme  prescrite 


300 


APPENDIX 


et  par  le  corps  electorale  indique  dans  le  decret  du  22  decembre 
1789,  pour  la  nomination  des  membres  de  I'assemblee  du  De- 
partement. 

Art.  4.  Sur  la  premiere  nouvelle  que  le  procureur  general 
syndic  du  departement  recevra  de  la  vacance  du  siege  episcopal, 
par  mort,  demission  ou  autrement,  il  en  donnera  avis  aux  procu- 
reurs  syndics  des  districts,  a  I'effet  par  eux  de  convoquer  les  elec- 
teurs  qui  auront  procede  a  la  derniere  nomination  des  membres 
de  I'Assemblee  administrative,  et,  en  meme  temps,  il  indiquera  le 
jour  ou  se  devra  fairs  I'election  de  I'eveque,  lequel  sera,  au  plus 
tard,  le  troisieme  dimanche  apres  la  lettre  d'avis  qu'il  ecrira. 

Art.  5.  Si  la  vacance  du  siege  episcopal  arrivait  dans  les  quatre 
derniers  mois  de  I'annee  oil  doit  se  faire  I'election  des  membres 
de  I'administration  de  departement,  I'election  de  I'eveque  serait 
dififere  et  renvoye  a  la  prochaine  assemblee  des  electeurs. 

Art.  6.  L'election  de  I'eveque  ne  pourra  se  faire  ou  etre  com- 
mencee  qu'un  jour  de  dimanche,  dans  I'eglise  principale  du  chef- 
lieu  du  departement,  a  Tissue  de  la  messe  paroissiale  a  laquelle 
seront  tenus  d'assister  tous  les  electeurs. 

Art.  7.  Pour  etre  eligible  a  un  eveche,  il  sera  necessaire  d'avoir 
rempli,  au  moin  pendant  quinze  ans,  les  fonctions  du  ministere 
ecclesiastique  dans  le  diocese  en  qualite  de  cure,  de  desservant 
ou  de  vicaire,  ou  comme  vicaire  superieur,  ou  comme  vicaire 
directeur  du  seminaire. 

Art.  8.  Les  eveques  dont  les  sieges  sont  supprimes  par  le  pre- 
sent decret  pourront  etre  elus  aux  eveches  actuellement  vacants, 
ainsi  qu'a  ceux  qui  vaqueront  par  la  suite,  ou  qui  sont  eriges  en 
quelques  departements,  encore  qu'ils  n'eussent  pas  quinze  annees 
d'exercice. 

Art.  9.  Les  cures  et  autres  ecclesiastiques  qui,  par  I'effet  de  la 
nouvelle  circonscription  des  dioceses,  se  trouveront  dans  un  dio- 
cese different  de  celui  011  ils  exerqaient  leurs  fonctions,  seront 
reputes  les  avoir  exercees  dans  leur  nouveau  diocese,  et  ils  y 
seront  en  consequence  eligibles,  pourvu  qu'ils  aient  d'ailleurs  le 
temps  d'exercice  ci-devant  exige. 

Art.  10.  Pourront  aussi  etre  elus,  les  cures  actuels  qui  auraient 
dix  annees  d'exercice  dans  une  cure  du  diocese,  encore  qu'ils 
n'eussent  pas  auparavant  rempli  les  fonctions  de  vicaire. 

Art.  II.  II  en  sera  de  meme  des  cures  dont  les  paroisses 
auraient  ete  supprimees,  en  vertu  du  present  decret;  et  il  leur 
sera  compte,  comme  temps  d'exercice,  celui  qui  se  sera  ecoule 
depuis  la  suppression  de  leur  cure. 


APPENDIX 


301 


Art.  12.  Les  missionnaires,  les  vicaires  generaux  des  eveques. 
les  ecclesiastiques  desservant  les  hopitaux.  ou  charges  de  I'educa- 
tion  publique,  seront  pareillement  eligibles.  lorsqu'ils  auront  rem- 
pli  leurs  fonctions  pendant  quinze  ans  a  compter  de  leur  promo- 
tion au  sacerdoce. 

Art.  13.  Seront  pareillement  eligibles.  les  dignitaires.  chanoines. 
et  en  general  tous  beneficiers  et  titulaires  qui  etaient  obliges  a 
residence,  ou  exergaient  des  fonctions  ecclesiastiques.  et  dont  les 
benefices,  titres,  offices  ou  emplois  se  trouvent  supprimes  par  le 
present  decret.  lorsqu'ils  auront  quinze  annees  d'exercice  comp- 
tees,  comme  il  est  dit  des  cures  dans  I'article  11. 

Art.  14.  La  proclamation  de  I'elu  se  fera  par  le  president  de 
I'assemblee  electorale  dans  I'eglise  oil  Telection  aura  ete  faite,  en 
presence  du  peuple  et  du  clerge  et  avant  de  commencer  la  messe 
solennelle  qui  sera  celebree  a  cet  effet. 

Art.  15.  Le  proces-verbal  de  I'election  et  de  la  proclamation 
sera  envoye  au  roi  par  le  president  de  I'assemblee  des  electeurs, 
pour  donner  a  Sa  Majeste  connaissance  du  choix  qui  aura  ete  fait. 

Art.  16.  Au  plus  tard  dans  le  mois  qui  suivra  son  election, 
celui  qui  aura  ete  elu  a  un  eveche  se  presentera  en  personne  a 
son  eveque  metropolitain,  et  s'il  est  elu  pour  le  siege  de  la  metro- 
pole,  au  plus  ancien  eveque  de  I'arrondissement,  avec  le  proces- 
verbal  d'election,  et  il  le  suppliera  de  lui  accorder  la  confirma- 
tion canonique. 

Art.  17.  Le  metropolitain  ou  I'ancien  eveque  aura  la  faculte 
d'examiner  I'elu  en  presence  de  son  conseil,  sur  sa  doctrine  et 
ses  mceurs;  s'il  le  juge  capable,  il  lui  donnera  I'institution  cano- 
nique ;  s'il  croit  devoir  la  lui  refuser,  les  causes  du  refus  seront 
donnees  par  ecrit,  signees  du  metropolitain  et  de  son  conseil. 
sauf  aux  parties  interessees  a  se  pourvoir  par  voie  d'appel  comme 
d'abus,  ainsi  qu'il  sera  dit  ci-apres. 

Art.  18.  L'eveque.  a  qui  la  confirmation  sera  demandee.  ne 
pourra  exiger  de  I'elu  d'autre  serment.  sinon  qu'il  fait  profession 
de  la  religion  catholique,  apostolique  et  romaine. 

Art.  19.  Le  nouvel  eveque  ne  pourra  s'adresser  au  pape  pour 
en  obtenir  aucune  confirmation,  mais  il  lui  ecrira  comme  au  chef 
visible  de  I'Eglisc  universelle,  en  temoignage  de  I'unite  de  foi  et 
de  la  communion  qu'il  doit  entretenir  avec  lui. 

Art.  20.  La  consecration  de  l'eveque  ne  pourra  se  faire  que 
dans  son  eglise  cathedrale.  par  son  metropolitain,  ou,  a  son  de- 
faut,  par  le  plus  ancien  eveque  de  I'arrondissement  de  la  metro- 
pole  assiste  des  eveques  des  deux  dioceses  les  plus  voisins,  un 


302 


APPENDIX 


jour  de  dimanche,  pendant  la  messe  paroissiale,  en  presence  du 
peuple  et  du  clerge. 

Art.  21.  Avant  que  la  ceremonie  de  la  consecration  commence, 
I'elu  pretera,  en  presence  des  officiers  municipaux,  du  peuple  et 
du  clerge,  le  serment  solennel  de  veiller  avec  soin  sur  les  fideles 
du  diocese  qui  lui  est  confie,  d'etre  fidele  a  la  nation,  a  la  loi  et 
au  roi,  et  de  maintenir  de  tout  son  pouvoir  la  Constitution  de- 
crete  par  FAssemblee  nationale  et  sanctionnee  par  le  roi. 

Art.  22.  L'eveque  aura  la  liberte  de  choisir  les  vicaires  de  son 
eglise  cathedrale  dans  tout  le  clerge  de  son  diocese,  a  la  charge 
par  lui  de  ne  pouvoir  nommer  que  des  pretres  qui  auront  exerce 
des  fonctions  ecclesiastiques  au  moins  pendant  dix  ans ;  il  ne 
pourra  les  destituer  que  de  I'avis  de  son  conseil,  et  par  une  de- 
liberation qui  y  aura  ete  prise  a  la  pluralite  des  voix  en  con- 
naissance  de  cause. 

Art.  23.  Les  cures  actuellement  etablis  en  aucune  eglise  cathe- 
drale, ainsi  que  ceux  des  paroisses  qui  seront  supprimees,  pour 
etre  reunies  a  I'eglise  cathedrale  et  en  former  le  territoire,  seront 
de  plein  droit,  s'ils  le  demandent,  les  premiers  vicaires  de  l'eveque, 
chacun  suivant  I'ordre  de  leur  anciennete  dans  les  fonctions 
pastorales. 

Art.  24.  Les  vicaires  superieurs  et  vicaires  directeurs  de  semi- 
naire  seront  nommes  par  l'eveque  et  son  conseil,  et  ne  pourront 
etre  destitues  que  de  la  meme  maniere  que  les  vicaires  de  I'eglise 
cathedrale. 

Art.  25.  L'election  des  cures  se  fera  dans  la  forme  prescrite 
et  par  les  electeurs  indiques  dans  le  decret  du  22  decembre  1789 
pour  la  nomination  des  membres  de  I'assemblee  administrative  du 
district. 

Art.  26.  L'assemblee  des  electeurs  pour  la  nomination  aux  cures 
se  formera  tous  les  ans  a  I'epoque  de  la  formation  des  assemblees 
de  district,  quand  meme  il  y  aurait  une  seule  cure  vacante  dans 
le  district,  a  I'effet  de  quoi  les  municipalites  seront  tenues  de 
donner  avis  au  procureur  syndic  du  district  de  toutes  les  vacances 
de  cures  qui  arriveront  dans  leur  arrondissement  par  mort,  de- 
mission ou  autrement. 

Art.  27.  En  convoquant  l'assemblee  des  electeurs,  le  procureur 
syndic  enverra  a  chaque  municipalite  la  liste  de  toutes  les  cures 
auxquelles  il  faudra  nommer. 

Art.  28.  L'election  des  cures  se  fera  par  scrutins  separes  pour 
chaque  cure  vacante. 

Art.  29.  Chaque  electeur,  avant  de  mettre  son  bulletin  dans  le 


APPENDIX 


303 


vase  du  scrutin,  fera  serment  de  ne  nommcr  que  celui  qu'il  aura 
choisi  en  son  ame  et  conscience,  comme  le  plus  digne,  sans  y 
avoir  ete  determine  par  dons,  promcsses,  sollicitations  ou  me- 
naces. Ce  serment  sera  prete  pour  I'election  des  eveques  comme 
pour  celle  des  cures. 

Art.  30.  L'election  des  cures  ne  pourra  se  faire  ou  etre  com- 
mencee  qu'un  jour  de  dimanche,  dans  la  principale  eglise  du 
chef-lieu  du  district,  a  Tissue  de  la  messe  paroissiale,  a  laquelle 
tons  les  electeurs  seront  tenus  d'assister. 

Art.  31.  La  proclamation  des  elus  sera  faite  par  le  president 
du  corps  electoral  dans  I'eglise  principale,  avant  la  messe  solen- 
nelle  qui  sera  celebree  a  cet  effet,  et  en  presence  du  peuple  et  du 
clerge. 

Art.  32.  Pour  etre  eligible  a  une  cure,  il  sera  necessaire  d'avoir 
rempli  les  fonctions  de  vicaire  dans  une  paroisse,  ou  dans  un 
hopital  et  autre  maison  de  charite  du  diocese,  au  moins  pendant 
cinq  ans. 

Art.  33.  Les  cures  dont  les  parolsses  seront  supprimees  en  exe- 
cution du  present  decret  pourront  etre  elus,  encore  qu'ils  n'eus- 
sent  pas  cinq  annees  d'exercice  dans  le  diocese. 

Art.  34.  Seront  pareillement  eligibles  aux  cures,  tous  ceux  qui 
ont  ete  ci-dessus  declares  eligibles  aux  eveclies,  pourvu  qu'ils 
aient  aussi  cinq  annees  d'exercice. 

Art.  35.  Celui  qui  aura  ete  proclame  elu  a  une  cure  se  pre- 
sentera  en  personne  a  I'eveque  avec  le  proces-verbal  de  son  elec- 
tion et  proclamation,  a  I'effet  d'obtenir  de  lui  I'institution  cano- 
nique. 

Art.  36.  L'eveque  aura  la  faculte  d'examiner  I'elu  en  presence 
de  son  conseil  sur  sa  doctrine  et  ses  moeurs ;  s'il  le  juge  capable, 
il  lui  donnera  I'institution  canonique ;  s'il  croit  devoir  la  lui  re- 
fuser, les  causes  du  refus  seront  donnees,  par  ecrit,  signees  de 
l'eveque  et  de  son  conseil,  sauf  aux  parties  le  recours  a  la  puis- 
sance civile,  ainsi  qu'il  sera  dit  ci-apres. 

Art.  37.  En  examinant  I'elu  qui  lui  demandera  I'institution 
canonique,  l'eveque  ne  pourra  exiger  de  lui  d'autre  serment,  sinon 
qu'il  fait  profession  de  la  religion  catholique,  apostolique  et 
romaine. 

Art.  38.  Les  cures,  elus  et  institues,  preteront  le  meme  ser- 
ment que  les  eveques  dans  leur  eglise  un  jour  de  dimanche,  avant 
la  messe  paroissiale,  en  presence  des  officiers  municipaux  du  lieu, 
du  peuple  et  du  clerge;  jusque-la,  ils  ne  pourront  faire  aucune 
fonction  curiale. 


304 


APPENDIX 


Art.  39.  II  y  aura,  tant  dans  I'eglise  cathedrale  que  dans  chaque 
eglise  paroissiale,  un  registre  particulier  sur  lequel  le  secretaire- 
greffier  de  la  municipalite  du  lieu  ecrira,  sans  frais,  le  proces- 
verbal  de  la  prestation  de  serment  de  I'eveque  ou  du  cure ;  il  n'y 
aura  pas  d'autre  acte  de  prise  de  possession  que  ce  proces-verbal. 

Art.  40.  Les  eveches  et  les  cures  seront  reputes  vacants  jus- 
qu'a  ce  que  les  elus  aient  prete  le  serment  ci-dessus  mentionne. 

Art.  41.  Pendant  les  vacances  du  siege  episcopal,  le  premier, 
et,  a  son  defaut,  le  second  vicaire  de  I'eglise  cathedrale,  rem- 
placera  I'eveque,  tant  pour  les  fonctions  curiales  que  pour  les 
actes  de  juridiction  qui  n'exigent  pas  le  caractere  episcopal; 
mais,  en  tout,  il  sera  tenu  de  se  conduire  par  les  avis  du  conseil. 

Art.  42.  Pendant  les  vacances  d'une  cure,  Tadministration  de 
la  paroisse  sera  confiee  au  premier  vicaire,  sauf  a  y  etablir  un 
vicaire  de  plus,  si  la  municipalite  le  requiert ;  et  dans  le  cas  ou 
il  n'y  aurait  pas  de  vicaire  dans  la  paroisse,  il  y  sera  etabli  un 
desservant  par  I'eveque. 

Art.  43.  Chaque  cure  aura  le  droit  de  choisir  ses  vicaires ;  mais 
il  ne  pourra  fixer  son  choix  que  sur  les  pretres  ordonnes  et  admis 
dans  la  diocese  de  I'eveque. 

Art.  44.  Aucun  cure  ne  pourra  revoquer  ses  vicaires  que  pour 
les  causes  legitimes  jugees  telles  par  I'eveque  et  son  conseil. 

TITRE  III 
Du  traitement  des  ministres  de  la  religion 

Article  Premier.  Les  ministres  de  la  religion  exergant  les  pre- 
mieres et  les  plus  importantes  fonctions  de  la  societe,  et  obliges 
de  resider  continuellement  dans  le  lieu  du  service  auquel  la  con- 
fiance  des  peuples  les  a  appeles,  seront  defrayes  par  la  nation. 

Art.  2.  II  sera  fourni,  a  chaque  eveque,  a  chaque  cure  et  aux 
desservants  des  annexes  et  succursales,  un  logement  convenable, 
a  la  charge  par  eux  d'y  faire  toutes  les  reparations  locatives,  sans 
entendre  rien  innover,  quant  a  present,  a  I'egard  des  paroisses  et 
par  les  cures.  II  leur  sera,  en  outre,  assigne  a  tous  le  traitement 
qui  va  etre  regie. 

Art.  3.  Le  traitement  des  eveques  sera,  savoir: 

Pour  I'eveque  de  Paris,  de  50,000  livres; 

Pour  les  eveques  des  villes  dont  la  population  est  de  50,000 
ames  et  au-dessus,  de  20,000  livres; 


APPENDIX 


305 


Pour  tons  les  autres  eveques,  de  12,000  livres. 

Art.  4.  Le  traitement  des  eglises  cathedrales  sera,  savoir : 

A  Paris,  pour  le  premier  vicaire,  de  6000  livres ; 

Pour  le  second,  de  4000  livres ; 

Pour  les  autres  vicaires,  de  3000  livres. 

Dans  les  villes  dont  la  population  est  de  50,000  ames  et  au- 
dessus : 

Pour  le  premier  vicaire,  de  4000  livres ; 
Pour  le  second,  de  3000  livres ; 
Pour  touts  les  autres,  de  2400  livres. 

Dans  les  villes  dont  la  population  est  de  moins  de  50,000  ames: 

Pour  le  premier  vicaire,  de  3000  livres ; 

Pour  le  second,  de  2400  livres ; 

Pour  touts  les  autres,  de  2000  livres. 

Art.  5.  Le  traitement  des  cures  sera,  savoir: 

A  Paris,  de  6000  livres; 

Dans  les  villes  dont  la  population  est  de  50,000  ames  et  au- 
dessus,  de  4000  livres ; 

Dans  celles  ou  la  population  est  de  moins  de  50,000  ames  et  de 
plus  de  10,000  ames,  de  3000  livres ; 

Dans  les  villes,  dans  les  bourgs  dont  la  population  est  au- 
dessous  de  10,000  ames  et  au-dessus  de  3000  ames,  de  2400  livres ; 

Dans  tous  les  autres  villes  et  bourgs,  et  dans  les  villages,  lors- 
que  la  paroisse  offrira  une  population  de  3000  ames  et  au-dessous 
jusqu'a  2500,  de  2000  livres;  lorsqu'elle  en  offrira  une  de  2500 
ames  jusqu'a  2000,  de  1800  livres;  lorsqu'elle  en  offrira  une  de 
moins  de  2000  et  de  plus  de  1000,  de  1500  livres,  et  lorsqu'elle  en 
offrira  une  de  1000  ames  et  au-dessous,  de  1200  livres. 

Art.  6.  Le  traitement  des  vicaires  sera,  savoir :  a  Paris,  pour  le 
premier  vicaire,  de  2400  livres;  pour  le  second,  de  1500  livres, 
et,  pour  tous  les  autres,  de  800  livres. 

Dans  les  villes  ou  la  population  est  de  50,000  ames  et  au-dessus, 
pour  le  premier  vicaire,  de  1200  livres;  pour  le  second,  de  1000 
livres,  et  pour  tous  les  autres,  de  800  livres. 

Dans  tous  les  autres  villes  et  bourgs,  011  la  population  sera  de 
plus  de  3000  ames,  de  800  livres  pour  les  deux  premiers  vicaires, 
de  700  livres  pour  tous  les  autres. 

Dans  toutes  les  autres  paroisses  de  ville  et  de  campagne,  de  700 
livres  pour  chaque  vicaire. 

Art.  7.  Le  traitement  en  argent  des  ministres  de  la  religion 
leur  sera  paye  d'avance,  de  trois  mois  en  trois  mois,  par  le 
tresorier  du  district,  a  peine  pour  lui  d'y  etre  contraint  par  corps. 


3o6 


APPENDIX 


sur  une  simple  sommation ;  et  dans  le  cas  ou  I'eveque,  cure  oit 
vicaire,  viendrait  a  motirir  ou  a  donner  sa  demission,  avant  la  fin 
du  quartier,  il  ne  pourra  etre  exerce,  centre  lui  ni  contre  ses 
heritiers,  aucune  repetition. 

Art.  8.  Pendant  la  vacance  des  eveches,  des  cures  et  de  tons 
offices  ecclesiastiques,  payes  par  la  nation,  les  fruits  du  traitement 
qui  y  est  attache  seront  verses  dans  la  caisse  du  district,  pour 
subvenir  aux  depenses  dont  il  va  etre  parle. 

Art.  9.  Les  cures  qui,  a  cause  de  leur  grand  age  ou  de  leurs 
infirmites,  ne  pourraient  plus  vaquer  a  leurs  fonctions,  en  don- 
neront  avis  au  directoire  du  departement  qui,  sur  les  instructions 
de  la  municipalite  et  de  I'administration  du  district,  laissera  a 
leur  choix,  s'il  y  a  lieu,  ou  de  prendre  un  vicaire  de  plus,  lequel 
sera  paye  par  la  nation,  sur  le  meme  pied  que  les  autres  vicaires, 
ou  de  se  retirer  avec  une  pension  egale  au  traitement  qui  aurait 
ete  fourni  au  vicaire. 

Art.  10.  Pourront  aussi  les  vicaires,  aumoniers  des  hopitaux, 
superieurs  des  seminaires  et  tous  autres  exergant  les  fonctions 
publiques,  en  faisant  constater  leur  etat  de  la  maniere  qui  vient 
d'etre  prescrite,  se  retirer  avec  une  pension  de  la  valeur  du  traite- 
ment dont  ils  jouissaient,  pourvu  qu'il  n'excede  pas  la  somme  de 
800  livres. 

Art.  II.  La  fixation  qui  vient  d'etre  faite  du  traitement  des 
ministres  de  la  religion  aura  lieu  a  compter  du  jour  de  la  publi- 
cation du  present  decret ;  mais  seulement  pour  ceux  qui  seront 
pourvous,  par  la  suite,  d'offices  ecclesiastiques.  A  I'egard  des 
titulaires  actuels,  soit  ceux  dont  les  offices  sont  conserves,  leur 
traitement  sera  fixe  par  un  decret  particulier. 

Art.  12.  Au  moyen  du  traitement  qui  leur  est  assure  par  la  pre- 
sente  constitution,  les  eveques,  les  cures  et  leurs  vicaires  exer- 
ceront  gratuitement  les  fonctions  episcopales  et  curiales, 

TITRE  IV 

De  la  loi  de  la  residence 

Article  Premier.  La  loi  de  la  residence  sera  regulierement 
observee ;  et  tous  ceux  qui  seront  revetus  d'un  office  ou  emploi 
ecclesiastique  y  seront  soumis  sans  aucune  exception  ni  dis- 
tinction. 

Art.  2.  Aucun  eveque  ne  pourra  s'absenter,  chaque  annee,  pen- 
dant plus  de  quinze  jours  consecutifs,  hors  de  son  diocese,  que 


APPENDIX 


307 


dans  le  cas  d'line  veritable  necessite,  et  avec  ragrement  du  direc- 
toire  du  departement  dans  lequel  son  siege  sera  etabli. 

Art.  3.  Ne  pourront  pareillement  les  cures  et  les  vicaires  s'ab- 
senter  du  lieu  de  leurs  fonctions,  au  dela  du  terme  qui  vient 
d'etre  fixe,  que  pour  des  raisons  graves,  et  meme.  en  ce  cas, 
seront  tenus  les  cures  d'obtenir  Tagrement  tant  de  leur  eveque 
que  du  directoire  de  leur  district ;  les  vicaires,  la  permission  de 
leur  cure. 

Art.  4.  Si  un  eveque  ou  un  cure  s'ecartait  de  la  loi  de  la  resi- 
dence, la  municipalite  du  lieu  en  donnerait  avis  au  procurcur 
general  syndic  du  departement,  qui  I'avertirait  par  ecrit  de  ren- 
trer  dans  son  devoir,  et,  apres  sa  seconde  monition,  le  pour- 
suivrait  pour  le  faire  declarer  dechu  de  son  traitement  pour  tout 
le  temps  de  son  absence. 

Art.  5.  Les  eveques,  les  cures,  les  vicaires,  ne  pourront  accepter 
de  charges,  d'emplois,  ou  de  commissions  qui  les  obligeraient  de 
s'cloigner  de  leur  diocese  ou  de  leur  paroisse,  ou  qui  les  enleve- 
raicnt  aux  fonctions  de  leur  ministere.  et  ceux  qui  en  sont  ac- 
tuellement  pourvus  seront  tenus  de  faire  leur  option  dans  le 
delai  de  trois  mois,  a  compter  de  la  notification  qui  leur  sera  faite 
du  present  decret,  par  le  procureur  general  syndic  de  leur  departe- 
ment, sinon  et  apres  I'expiration  de  leur  delai  leur  office  sera 
repute  vacant,  et  il  leur  sera  donne  un  successeur  en  la  forme 
ci-dessus  prescrite. 

Art.  6.  Les  eveques,  les  cures  et  les  vicaires  pourront,  comme 
citoyens  actifs,  assister  aux  assemblees  primaires  et  electorales. 
y  etre  nommes  electeurs,  deputes  aux  legislatures,  elus  membres 
du  conseil  general  de  la  commune  et  du  conseil  des  administra- 
tions du  district  et  des  departements.  Mais  leurs  fonctions  sont 
declarees  incompatibles  avec  celles  de  maires  et  autres  officiers 
municipaux  et  des  membres  des  directoires  de  district  et  de  de- 
partement ;  et,  s'ils  etaient  nommes,  ils  seraient  tenus  de  faire 
leur  option. 

Art.  7.  L'incompatibilite  mentionnee  dans  I'article  6  n'aura  effet 
que  pour  I'avenir,  et  si  aucuns  eveques,  cures  ou  vicaires  ont  ete 
appeles  par  les  voeux  de  leurs  concitoyens  aux  offices  de  maire, 
et  autres  municipaux,  ou  nommes  membres  des  directoires  de  dis- 
trict et  de  departement,  ils  pourront  continuer  d'en  exercer  les 
fonctions. 

C.-F.  DE  BoN'NAY,  president. 

P.  DE  Delley,  Robespierre,  Populus,  Dupont  (de 
Nemours),  Gar.\t  aJne,  Regnault  (de  Saint- 
Angely),  secretaires. 


308 


APPENDIX 


III 

ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CONVENTION 

In  its  public  manifesto  of  December  5,  1794,  the  Convention 
asserted  : 

"Vos  maitres  vous  disent  que  la  nation  frangaise  a  proscrit 
toutes  les  religions,  qu'elle  a  substitue  le  culte  de  quelques  hommes 
a  celui  de  la  Divinite.  lis  nous  peignent  a  vos  yeux  comme  un 
peuple  idolatre  ou  insense.  lis  mentent.  Le  peuple  frangais  et 
ses  representants  respectent  la  liberte  de  tons  les  cultes  et  n'en 
proscrivent  aucun.  lis  honorent  la  vertu  des  martyrs  de  I'hu- 
manite,  sans  engouement  et  sans  idolatrie ;  ils  abhorrent  I'intole- 
rance  et  la  superstition,  de  quelques  pretextes  qu'elles  se  couvrent ; 
ils  condamnent  les  extravagances  du  philosophisme  comme  les 
folies  de  la  superstition  et  comme  les  crimes  du  fanatisme." 

On  the  seventh  it  passed  the  following  law : 

"La  Convention  nationale,  considerant  ce  qui  exigent  d'elle  les 
principes  qu'elle  a  proclames  au  nom  du  peuple  frangais  et  le 
maintien  de  la  tranquillite  publique,  decrete: 

Article  Premier.  Defend  toutes  violences  ou  mesures  con- 
traires  a  la  liberte; 

Art.  2.  La  surveillance  des  autorites  constituees  et  Taction  de 
la  force  publique  se  renfermeront,  a  cet  egard,  chacune  pour  ce 
qui  les  concerne,  dans  les  mesures  de  police  et  surete  publique ; 

Art.  3.  La  Convention,  par  les  dispositions  precedentes,  n'en- 
tend  deroger  en  aucune  maniere  aux  lois  repressives,  ni  aux  pre- 
cautions de  salut  public  contre  les  pretres  refractaires  ou  turbu- 
lents  et  contre  tons  ceux  qui  tenteraient  d'abuser  du  pretexte  de 
la  religion  pour  compromettre  la  cause  de  la  liberte. 

Elle  n'entend  pas  non  plus  fournir  a  qui  que  ce  soit  aucun  pre- 
texte d'inquieter  le  patriotisme  et  de  ralentir  I'essor  de  Tesprit 
public.  [Two  days  later  these  words  were  added:  La  Convention 
n'entend  pas  non  plus  improuver  ce  qui  a  ete  fait  ces  derniers 
jours  en  vertu  des  arretes  des  representants  du  peuple.  Inasmuch 
as  the  measures  to  which  they  refer  were  expressly  aimed  against 
religion,  the  inconsistency  and  irony  of  the  whole  document  are 
self-evident.] 

La  Convention  invite  tons  les  bons  citoyens,  au  nom  de  la  patrie, 
a  abstenir  de  toutes  disputes  theologiques  ou  etrangeres  aux 
grands  interets  du  peuple  frangais,  pour  concourir  de  tous  leurs 
moyens  au  triomphe  de  la  Republique  et  a  la  ruine  de  ses  ennemis. 


APPENDIX 


309 


L'adresse  en  forme  de  reponse  aux  manifestes  des  rois  ligues 
centre  la  Republique.  decretee  par  la  Convention  nationale  le 
15  frimaire  [December  fifth],  sera  reimprimee  par  les  ordres  des 
administrations  de  district  pour  etre  repandue  et  affichee  dans 
I'etendue  de  chaque  district;  elle  sera  lue,  ainsi  que  le  present 
decret,  au  plus  prochain  jour  de  decadi,  dans  les  assemblees  de 
commune  ou  de  section,  par  les  officiers  municipaux  et  par  les 
presidents  des  sections."  The  decree  of  Ventose  (February, 
1795)  '^vas  the  expansion  of  this  idea,  a  stroke  of  foreign  policy. 

IV 

THE  CONCORDAT.    See  p.  263 

Du  18  Germinal,  an  X  de  la  Republique  une  et  indivisible. 
Au  nom  du  pcuple  francais.  Boytapartt\  premier  Consul.  Proclamc 
loi  de  la  Republique  le  decret  suivant.  rendu  par  le  Corps  legis- 
latif  le  18  germinal  an  X,  conformement  a  la  proposition  faite 
par  le  Gouvernement  le  15  dudit  mois,  communiquee  au  Tribunal 
le  meme  jour. 

Decret 

La  convention  passe  a  Paris,  le  26  messidor  an  IX.  entre  le 
Pape  et  le  Gouvernement  frangais.  et  dont  les  ratifications  ont  ete 
echangees  a  Paris  le  23  fructidor  an  IX  [10  septembre  1801],  en- 
semble les  articles  organiques  de  ladite  convention,  les  articles 
organiques  des  cultes  protestans.  dont  la  teneur  suit,  seront  pro- 
mulgues  et  executes  comme  des  lois  de  la  Republique. 

Convention  entre  le  Gouvernement  francais  et  Sa  Saintete  Pie 
VII,  echangee  le  23  fructidor  an  IX  [10  Septembre  j8oi] 

Le  premier  Consul  de  la  republique  frangaise.  et  sa  Saintete  le 
souverain  PontifePiV  I'll,  ont  nomme  pour  leurs  plenipotentiaires 
respectif : 

Le  premier  Consul,  les  citoyens  Joseph  Bonaparte,  conseiller 
d'etat.  Cretet,  conseiller  d'etat,  et  Bernier.  docteur  en  theologie, 
cure  de  Saint-Laud  d'Angers,  munis  de  pleins  pouvoirs ; 

Sa  Saintete,  son  eminence  monseigneur  Hercule  Consalvi.  car- 
dinal de  la  sainte  Eglise  romaine.  diacre  de  Sainte-Agathe  ad 
Suburram,  son  secretaire  d'etat;  Joseph  Spina,  archeveque  dc 


310 


APPENDIX 


Corinthe,  prelat  domestique  de  sa  Saintete,  a:sistant  du  trone 
pontifical,  et  le  pere  Caselli,  theologien  consultant  de  sa  Saintete, 
pareillement  munis  de  pleins  pouvoirs  en  bonne  et  due  forme ; 

Lesquels,  apres  I'echange  des  pleins  pouvoirs  respectifs,  ont 
arrete  la  convention  suivante : 

Convention  entre  le  Gouvernement  frangais  et  sa 
Saintete  Pie  VII 

Le  Gouvernement  de  la  Republique  frangaise  reconnait  que  la 
religion  catholique,  apostolique  et  romaine,  est  la  religion  de  la 
grande  majorite  des  citoyens  frangais. 

Sa  Saintete  reconnait  egalement  que  cette  meme  religion  a  retire 
et  attend  encore  en  ce  moment  le  plus  grand  bien  et  le  plus  grand 
eclat  de  Tetablissement  du  culte  catholique  en  France,  et  de  la 
profession  particuliere  qu'en  font  les  Consuls  de  la  Republique. 

En  consequence,  d'apres  cette  reconnaissance  mutuelle,  tant 
pour  le  bien  de  la  religion  que  pour  le  maintien  de  la  tranquillite 
interieure,  ils  sont  convenus  de  ce  qui  suit : 

Art.  P"^-  La  religion  catholique,  apostolique  et  romaine,  sera 
librement  exercee  en  France :  son  culte  sera  public,  en  se  con- 
formant aux  reglemens  de  police  que  le  Gouvernement  jugera 
necessaires  pour  la  tranquillite  publique. 

IL  II  sera  fait  par  le  Saint-Siege,  de  concert  avec  le  Gouverne- 
ment, une  nouvelle  circonscription  des  dioceses  frangais. 

III.  Sa  Saintete  declarera  aux  titulaires  des  eveches  frangais, 
qu'elle  attend  d'eux  avec  une  ferme  confiance,  pour  le  bien  de  la 
paix  et  de  I'unite,  toute  espece  de  sacrifices,  meme  celui  de  leurs 
sieges. 

D'apres  cette  exhortation,  s'ils  se  refusaient  a  ce  sacrifice  com- 
mands par  le  bien  de  I'Eglise  (refus  neanmoins  auquel  sa  Sain- 
tete ne  s'attend  pas),  il  sera  pourvu,  par  de  nouveaux  titulaires, 
au  gouvernement  des  eveches  de  la  circonscription  nouvelle,  de 
la  maniere  suivante. 

IV.  Le  premier  Consul  de  la  Republique  nommera,  dans  les 
trois  mois  qui  suivront  la  publication  de  la  bulle  de  sa  Saintete, 
aux  archeveches  et  eveches  de  la  circonscription  nouvelle.  Sa 
Saintete  conferera  I'institution  canonique,  suivant  les  formes  etab- 
lies  par  rapport  a  la  France  avant  le  changement  de  gouvernement. 

V.  Les  nominations  aux  eveches  qui  vaqueront  dans  la  suite, 
seront  egalement  faites  par  le  premier  Consul,  et  institution 
canonique  sera  donnee  par  le  Saint-Siege,  en  conformite  de  I'ar- 
ticle  precedent. 


APPENDIX 


VI.  Les  eveques,  avant  d'cntrer  en  fonctions,  preteront  directe- 
ment,  entre  les  mains  du  premier  Consul,  le  serment  de  fidelite 
qui  etait  en  usage  avant  le  changement  de  gouvernement,  exprime 
dans  les  termes  suivans : 

"Je  jure  et  promets  a  Dieu,  sur  les  saints  evangiles,  de  garder 
obeissance  et  fidelite  au  Gouvernement  etabli  par  la  Constitution 
de  la  Republique  frangaise.  Je  promets  aussi  de  n'avoir  aucune 
intelligence,  de  n'assister  a  aucun  conseil,  de  n'entretenir  aucune 
ligue,  soit  au-dedans,  soit  au-dehors,  qui  soit  contraire  a  la  tran- 
quillite  publique ;  et  si,  dans  mon  diocese  ou  ailleurs,  j'apprends 
qu'il  se  trame  quelque  chose  au  prejudice  de  I'Etat,  je  le  ferai 
savoir  au  Gouvernement." 

VII.  Les  ecclesiastiques  du  second  ordre  preteront  le  meme  ser- 
ment entre  les  mains  des  autorites  civiles  designees  par  le  Gou- 
vernement. 

VIII.  La  formule  de  priere  suivante  sera  recitee  a  la  fin  de 
I'office  divin,  dans  toutes  les  eglises  catlioliques  de  France: 

Domine,  salvam  fac  Rempuhlicam; 
Dominc,  salvos  fac  Consulcs. 

IX.  Les  eveques  feront  une  nouvelle  circonscription  des  pa- 
roisses  de  leurs  dioceses,  qui  n'aura  d'effet  que  d'apres  le  con- 
sentement  du  Gouvernement. 

X.  Les  eveques  nommeront  aux  cures. 

Leur  choix  ne  pourra  tomber  que  sur  des  personnes  agreees 
par  le  Gouvernement. 

XI.  Les  eveques  pourront  avoir  un  chapitre  dans  leur  cathe- 
drale,  et  un  seminaire  pour  leur  diocese,  sans  que  le  Gouverne- 
ment s'oblige  a  les  doter. 

XII.  Toutes  les  eglises,  metropolitaines,  cathedrales,  parois- 
siales,  et  autres  non  alienees,  necessaires  au  culte,  seront  remises  a 
la  disposition  des  eveques. 

XIII.  Sa  Saintete,  pour  le  bien  de  la  paix  et  I'heureux  retab- 
lissement  de  la  religion  catholique,  declare  que  ni  elle,  ni  ses 
successeurs,  ne  troubleront  en  aucune  maniere  les  acquereurs  des 
biens  ecclesiastiques  alienes,  et  qu'en  consequence,  la  propriete  de 
ces  memes  biens,  les  droits  et  revenus  y  attaches,  demeureront 
incommutables  entre  leurs  mains  ou  celles  de  leurs  ayants-cause. 

XIV.  Le  Gouvernement  assurera  un  traitement  convenable  aux 
eveques  et  aux  cures  dont  les  dioceses  et  les  paroisses  seront 
compris  dans  la  circonscription  nouvelle. 

XV.  Le  Gouvernement  prendra  egalement  des  mesures  pour 


312 


APPENDIX 


que  les  catholiques  franqais  puissent,  s'ils  le  veulent,  faire  en 
faveur  des  eglises,  des  fondations. 

XVL  Sa  Saintete  reconnait  dans  le  premier  Consul  de  la  Re- 
publique  frangaise,  les  memes  droits  et  prerogatives  dont  jouissait 
pres  d'elle  I'ancien  gouvernement. 

XVII.  II  est  convenu  entre  les  parties  contractantes  que,  dans 
le  cas  ou  quelqu'un  des  successeurs  du  premier  Consul  actuel  ne 
serait  pas  catholique,  les  droits  et  prerogatives  mentionnes  dans 
I'article  ci-dessus,  et  la  nomination  aux  eveches  seront  regies, 
par  rapport  a  lui,  par  une  nouvelle  convention. 

Fait  a  Paris,  le  26  Messidor  an  IX. 

Signe  Joseph  Bonaparte  [L.S.].  Hercules,  Cardinalis  Consalvi 
[L.S.].  Cretet  [L.S.].  Joseph,  archiep.  Corinthi  [L.S.].  Bernier 
[L.S.].    F.  Carolus  Caselli  [L.S.]. 


THE  ORGANIC  ARTICLES 
Articles  Organiques  de  la  Convention  du  26  Messidor  an  IX 

TITRE 

Du  regime  de  I'^glise  catholique  dans  ses  rapports  generaux 
avec  les  droits  et  la  police  de  V^tat 

Art.  I".  Aucune  bulle,  bref,  rescrit,  decret,  mandat,  provision, 
signature  servant  de  provision,  ni  autres  expeditions  de  la  cour 
de  Rome,  meme  ne  concernant  que  les  particuliers,  ne  pourront 
etre  regus,  publics,  imprimes,  ni  autrement  mis  a  execution,  sans 
I'autorisation  du  Gouvernement. 

II.  Aucun  individu  se  disant  nonce,  legat,  vicaire  ou  commis- 
sa;ire  apostolique,  ou  se  prevalant  de  toute  autre  denomination, 
ne  pourra,  sans  la  meme  autorisation,  exercer  sur  le  sol  frangais 
ni  ailleurs,  aucune  fonction  relative  aux  affaires  de  I'eglise  gal- 
licane. 

III.  Les  decrets  des  synodes  etrangers,  meme  ceux  des  conciles 
generaux,  ne  pourront  etre  publics  en  France  avant  que  le  Gou- 
vernement en  ait  examine  la  forme,  leur  conformite  avec  les  lois, 
droits  et  franchises  de  la  Republique  frangaise,  et  tout  ce  qui, 
dans  leur  publication,  pourrait  alterer  ou  interesser  la  tranquillite 
publique. 


APPENDIX 


313 


I\^  Aucun  concile  national  on  nietropolitain.  aiicun  synode  dio- 
cesain,  aucune  assemblee  deliberantc  n'aiira  lieu  sans  la  permis- 
sion expresse  dii  Gouvernement. 

V.  Toutes  les  fonctions  ecclesiastiques  seront  gratuites,  sauf  les 
oblations  qui  seraient  autorisees  et  fixees  par  les  reglemens. 

VI.  II  y  aura  recours  au  conseil  d'etat,  dans  tous  les  cas  d'abus 
de  la  part  des  superieurs  et  autres  personnes  ecclesiastiques. 

Les  cas  d'abus  sont.  I'usurpation  ou  I'exces  de  pouvoir,  la  con- 
travention aux  lois  et  reglemens  de  la  Republique,  I'infraction 
des  regies  consacrees  par  les  canons  regus  en  France,  I'attentat 
aux  libertes,  franchises  et  coutumes  de  Teglise  gallicane.  et  toute 
entreprise  ou  tout  procede,  qui,  dans  I'exercice  du  culte,  pent  com- 
promettre  I'honneur  des  citoyens,  troubler  arbitrairement  leur  con- 
science, degenerer  contre  eux  en  oppression  ou  en  injure,  ou  en 
scandale  public. 

VII.  II  y  aura  pareillement  recours  au  conseil  d'etat,  s'il  est 
porte  atteinte  a  I'exercice  public  du  culte  et  a  la  liberte  que  les 
lois  et  les  reglemens  garantissent  a  ses  ministres. 

VIII.  Le  recours  competera  a  toute  personne  interessee.  A 
defaut  de  plainte  particuliere,  il  sera  exerce  d'office  par  les  prefets. 

Le  fonctionnaire  public,  I'ecclesiastique  ou  la  personne  qui  vou- 
dra  exercer  ce  recours,  adressera  un  memoire  detaille  et  signe, 
au  conseiller  d'etat  charge  de  toutes  les  affaires  concernant  les 
cultes,  lequel  sera  tenu  de  prendre,  dans  le  plus  court  delai,  tous 
les  renseignemens  convenables ;  et.  sur  son  rapport,  I'affaire  sera 
suivie  et  definitivement  terminee  dans  la  forme  administrative,  ou 
renvoyee,  selon  I'exigence  des  cas.  aux  autorites  competentes. 

TITRE  II 
Des  Ministres 
Section  PREMikRE 
Dispositions  gcncralcs 

IX.  Le  culte  catholique  sera  exerce  sous  la  direction  des  arche- 
veques  et  eveques  dans  leurs  dioceses,  et  sous  celle  des  cures  dans 
leurs  paroisses. 

X.  Tout  privilege  portant  exemption  ou  attribution  de  la  juri- 
diction  episcopale,  est  aboli. 


314 


APPENDIX 


XI.  Les  archeveques  et  eveques  pourront,  avec  Tautorisation  du 
Gouvernement,  etablir  dans  leurs  dioceses  des  chapitres  cathe- 
draux  et  des  seminaires.  Tous  autres  etablissemens  ecclesias- 
tiques  sont  supprimes. 

XII.  II  sera  libre  aux  archeveques  et  eveques  d'aj outer  a  leur 
nom,  le  titre  de  Citoyen  ou  celui  de  Monsieur.  Toutes  autres 
qualifications  sont  interdites. 

Section  II 
Des  Archeveques  ou  Metropolitains 

XIII.  Les  archeveques  consacreront  et  installeront  leurs  suf- 
fragans. En  cas  d'empechement  ou  de  refus  de  leur  part,  ils 
seront  supplees  par  le  plus  ancien  eveque  de  I'arrondissement 
metropolitain. 

XIV.  Ils  veilleront  au  maintien  de  la  foi  et  de  la  discipline 
dans  les  dioceses  dependans  de  leur  metropole. 

XV.  Ils  connaitront  des  reclamations  et  des  plaintes  portees 
contre  la  conduite  et  les  decisions  des  eveques  suffragans. 

Section  III 

Des  Eveques,  des  Vicaires  generaux  et  des  Seminaires 

XVI.  On  ne  pourra  etre  nomme  eveque  avant  I'age  de  trente 
ans,  et  si  on  n'est  originaire  Frangais. 

XVII.  Avant  I'expedition  de  I'arrete  de  nomination,  celui  ou 
ceux  qui  seront  proposes,  seront  tenus  de  rapporter  une  attesta- 
tion de  bonne  vie  et  mceurs,  expediee  par  I'eveque  dans  le  diocese 
duquel  ils  auront  exerce  les  fonctions  du  ministere  ecclesiastique ; 
et  ils  seront  examines  sur  leur  doctrine  par  un  eveque  et  deux 
pretres,  qui  seront  commis  par  le  premier  Consul,  lesquels  adres- 
seront  le  resultat  de  leur  examen  au  conseiller  d'etat  charge  de 
toutes  les  affaires  concernant  les  cultes. 

XVIII.  Le  pretre  nomme  par  le  premier  Consul  fera  les  dili- 
gences pour  rapporter  I'institution  du  Pape. 

II  ne  pourra  exercer  aucune  fonction,  avant  que  la  bulle  por- 
tant  son  institution  ait  regu  I'attache  du  Gouvernement,  et  qu'il 
ait  prete  en  personne  le  serment  prescrit  par  la  convention  passee 
entre  le  Gouvernement  frangais  et  le  Saint-Siege. 


APPENDIX 


3^5 


Ce  serment  sera  prete  au  premier  Consul ;  il  en  sera  dresse 
proces-verbal  par  le  secretaire  d'etat. 

XIX.  Les  eveques  nommeront  et  institueront  Ics  cures.  Nean- 
moins  ils  ne  manifesteront  leur  nomination  et  ils  ne  donneront 
I'institution  canonique,  qu'apres  que  cette  nomination  aura  ete 
agreee  par  le  premier  Consul. 

XX.  lis  seront  tenus  de  resider  dans  leurs  dioceses ;  ils  ne 
pourront  en  sortir  qu'avec  la  permission  du  premier  Consul. 

XXL  Chaque  eveque  pourra  nommer  deux  vicaires  generaux, 
et  chaque  archeveque  pourra  en  nommer  trois :  ils  les  choisiront 
parmi  les  pretres  ayant  les  qualites  requises  pour  etre  eveques. 

XXII.  Ils  visiteront  annuellement  en  personne  une  partie  de 
leur  diocese,  et,  dans  I'espace  de  cinq  ans,  le  diocese  entier. 

En  cas  d'empechement  legitime,  la  visite  sera  faite  par  un 
vicaire  general. 

XXIII.  Les  eveques  seront  charges  de  I'organisation  de  leurs 
seminaires,  et  les  reglemens  de  cette  organisation  seront  soumis 
a  I'approbation  du  premier  Consul. 

XXIV.  Ceux  qui  seront  choisis  pour  I'enseignement  dans  les 
seminaires,  souscriront  la  declaration  faite  par  le  clerge  de 
France  en  1682,  et  publiee  par  un  edit  de  la  meme  annee :  ils  se 
soumettront  a  y  enseigner  la  doctrine  qui  y  est  contenue,  et  les 
eveques  adresseront  une  expedition  en  forme  de  cette  soumission, 
au  conseiller  d'etat  charge  de  toutes  les  affaires  concernant  les 
cultes. 

XXV.  Les  eveques  enverront,  toutes  les  annees,  a  ce  conseiller 
d'etat,  le  nom  des  personnes  qui  etudieront  dans  les  seminaires, 
et  qui  se  destineront  a  I'etat  ecclesiastique. 

XXVI.  Ils  ne  pourront  ordonner  aucun  ecclesiastique,  s'il  ne 
justifie  d'une  propriete  produisant  aji  moins  un  revenu  annuel  de 
trois  cents  francs,  s'il  n'a  atteint  I'age  de  vingt-cinq  ans,  et  s'il 
ne  reunit  les  qualites  requises  par  les  canons  regus  en  France. 

Les  eveques  ne  feront  aucune  ordination  avant  que  le  nombre 
des  personnes  a  ordonner  ait  ete  soumis  au  Gouvernement  et  par 
lui  agree. 

Section  IV 
Des  Cures 

XXVII.  Les  cures  ne  pourront  entrer  en  fonctions  qu'apres 
avoir  prete,  entre  les  mains  du  prefet,  le  serment  prescrit  par  la 


3i6 


APPENDIX 


convention  passee  entre  le  Gouvernement  et  le  Saint-Siege.  11 
sera  dresse  proces-verbal  de  cette  prestation,  par  le  secretaire 
general  de  la  prefecture,  et  copie  collationnee  leur  en  sera  delivree. 

XXVIII.  lis  seront  mis  en  possession  par  le  cure  ou  le  pretre 
que  I'eveque  designera. 

XXIX.  lis  seront  tenus  de  resider  dans  leurs  paroisses. 

XXX.  Les  cures  seront  immediatement  soumis  aux  eveques 
dans  I'exercice  de  leurs  fonctions. 

XXXI.  Les  vicaires  et  desservans  exerceront  leur  ministere, 
sous  la  surveillance  et  la  direction  des  cures. 

lis  seront  approuves  par  I'eveque  et  revocables  par  lui. 

XXXII.  Aucun  etranger  ne  pourra  etre  employe  dans  les  fonc- 
tions du  ministere  ecclesiastique  sans  la  permission  du  Gouverne- 
ment. 

XXXIII.  Toute  fonction  est  interdite  a  tout  ecclesiastique, 
meme  frangais,  qui  n'appartient  a  aucun  diocese. 

XXXIV.  Un  pretre  ne  pourra  quitter  son  diocese  pour  aller 
desservir  dans  un  autre,  sans  la  permission  de  son  eveque. 

Section  V 

Des  Chapitres  cathedraux,  et  du  gouvernement  des  Dioceses 
pendant  la  vacance  du  Siege 

XXXV.  Les  archeveques  et  eveques  qui  voudront  user  de  la 
faculte  qui  leur  est  donne  d'etablir  des  chapitres,  ne  pourront  le 
faire  sans  avoir  rapporte  I'autorisation  du  Gouvernement,  tant 
pour  I'etablissement  lui-meme,  que  pour  le  nombre  et  le  choix  des 
ecclesiastiques  destines  a  les  former. 

XXXVI.  Pendant  la  vacance  des  sieges,  il  sera  pourvu  par  le 
metropolitain,  et,  a  son  defaut,  par  le  plus  ancien  des  eveques 
suffragans,  au  gouvernement  des  dioceses. 

Les  vicaires  generaux  de  ces  dioceses  continueront  leur  fonc- 
tions, meme  apres  la  mort  de  I'eveque,  jusqu'a  son  remplacement. 

XXXVII.  Les  metropolitains,  les  chapitres  cathedraux,  seront 
tenus,  sans  delai,  de  donner  avis  au  Gouvernement  de  la  vacance 
des  sieges,  et  des  mesures  qui  auront  ete  prises  pour  le  gouverne- 
ment des  dioceses  vacans. 

XXXVIII.  Les  vicaires  generaux  qui  gouverneront  pendant 
la  vacance,  ainsi  les  metropolitains  ou  capitulaires,  ne  se  permet- 
tront  aucune  innovation  dans  les  usages  et  coutumes  des  dioceses. 


APPENDIX 


317 


TITRE  III 

Du  Ciilte 

XXXIX.  II  n'y  aura  qu'une  liturgie  et  un  catechisme  pour 
toutes  les  eglises  catholiques  de  France. 

XL.  Aucun  cure  ne  pourra  ordonner  des  prieres  publiques  ex- 
traordinaires  dans  sa  paroisse,  sans  la  permission  speciale  de 
I'eveque. 

XLI.  Aucune  fete,  a  I'exception  du  dimanche,  ne  pourra  etre 
etablie  sans  la  permission  du  Gouvernement. 

XLII.  Les  ecclesiastiques  useront,  dans  les  ceremonies  reli- 
gieuses,  des  habits  et  ornemens  convenables  a  leur  litre :  ils  ne 
pourront  dans  aucun  cas,  ni  sous  aucun  pretexte,  prendre  la 
couleur  et  les  marques  distinctives  reservees  aux  eveques. 

XLIII.  Tous  les  ecclesiastiques  seront  habilles  a  la  frangaise  et 
en  noir. 

Les  eveques  pourront  joindre  a  ce  costume,  la  croix  pastorale 
et  les  bas  violets. 

XLIV.  Les  chapelles  domestiques,  les  oratoires  particuliers,  ne 
pourront  etre  etablis  sans  une  permission  expresse  du  Gouverne- 
ment. accordee  sur  la  demande  de  I'eveque. 

XLV.  Aucune  ceremonie  religieuse  n'aura  lieu  hors  des  edifices 
consacres  au  culte  catholique,  dans  les  villes  ou  il  y  a  des  temples 
destines  a  differens  cultes. 

XLVI.  Le  meme  temple  ne  pourra  etre  consacre  qu  a  un  meme 
culte. 

XLVII.  II  y  aura,  dans  les  cathedrales  et  paroisses.  une  place 
distinguee  pour  les  individus  catholiques  qui  remplissent  les  auto- 
rites  civiles  et  militaires. 

XLVIII.  L'eveque  se  concertera  avec  le  prefet  pour  regler  la 
maniere  d'appeler  les  fideles  au  service  divin  par  le  son  des 
cloches.  On  ne  pourra  les  sonner  pour  toute  autre  cause,  sans  la 
permission  de  la  police  locale. 

XLIX.  Lorsque  le  Gouvernement  ordonnera  des  prieres  pub- 
liques. les  eveques  se  concerteront  avec  le  prefet  et  le  comman- 
dant militaire  du  lieu,  pour  le  jour,  I'heure  et  le  mode  d'execution 
de  ces  ordonnances. 

L.  Les  predications  solennelles  appelees  sermons,  et  celles  con- 
nues  sous  le  nom  de  stations  de  I'avent  et  du  careme,  ne  seront 
faites  que  par  des  pretres  qui  en  auront  obtenu  une  autorisation 
speciale  de  I'eveque. 


3i8 


APPENDIX 


LI.  Les  cures,  aux  prones  des  messes  paroissiales,  prieront  et 
feront  prier  pour  la  prosperite  de  la  Republique  frangaise  et  pour 
les  Consuls. 

LII.  lis  ne  se  permettront  dans  leurs  instructions,  aucune  incul- 
pation directe  ou  indirecte,  soit  contre  les  personnes,  soit  contra 
les  autres  cultes  autorises  dans  I'Etat. 

IJII.  lis  ne  feront  au  prone  aucune  publication  etrangere  a 
I'exercice  du  culte,  si  ce  n'est  celles  qui  seront  ordonnees  par  le 
Gouvernement. 

LIV.  lis  ne  donneront  la  benediction  nuptiale  qu'a  ceux  qui 
justifieront,  en  bonne  et  due  forme,  avoir  contracte  mariage 
devant  I'officier  civil. 

LV.  Les  registres  tenus  par  les  ministres  du  culte,  n'etant  et  ne 
pouvant  etre  relatifs  qua  I'administration  des  sacremens,  ne  pour- 
ront,  dans  aucun  cas,  suppleer  les  registres  ordonnes  par  la  loi 
pour  constater  I'etat  civil  des  Frangais. 

LVL  Dans  tons  les  actes  ecclesiastiques  et  religieux,  on  sera 
oblige  de  se  servir  du  calendrier  d'equinoxe  etabli  par  les  lois  de 
la  Republique;  on  designera  les  jours  par  les  noms  qu'ils  avaient 
dans  le  calendrier  des  solstices. 

LVIL  Le  repos  des  fonctionnaires  publics  sera  fixe  au  dimanche. 


TITRE  IV 

De  la  circonscription  des  Archeveches,  des  ^veches  et  des 
Paroisses;  des  edifices  destines  au  Culte,  et  du 
traitement  des  Ministres 


Section  I'® 

De  la  circonscription  des  Archeveches  et  des  Eveches 

LVIII.  II  y  aura  en  France  dix  archeveches  ou  metropoles,  et 
cinquante  eveches. 

LIX.  La  circonscription  des  metropoles  et  des  dioceses  sera 
faite  conformcment  au  tableau  ci-joint.  (The  table  of  dioceses 
and  diocesan  towns  is  too  long  for  insertion  here.  It  can  be 
found  in  all  the  standard  hand-books.) 


APPENDIX 


319 


Section  II 

Dc  la  ciirojiscriptioii  dcs  Paroisscs 

LX.  II  y  aura  an  moins  une  paroissc  clans  chaqnc  jnstice  de 
paix. 

II  sera  etabli  autant  de  succursales  qne  le  besoin  ponrra  I'exiger. 

LXI.  Chaque  eveque,  de  concert  avec  le  prefet,  reglera  le 
nombre  et  I'etendue  de  ces  succursales.  Les  plans  arretes  seront 
soumis  an  Gonvernement,  et  ne  pourront  etre  mis  a  execution 
sans  son  autorisation. 

LXII.  Aucune  partie  du  territoire  frangais  ne  pourra  etre  erigee 
en  cure  ou  en  succursale  sans  I'autorisation  expresse  du  Gon- 
vernement. 

LXIII.  Les  pretres  desservant  les  succursales  sont  nommes  par 
les  eveques. 

Section  III 
Du  traitemcnt  des  Ministres 

LXIV.  Le  traitement  des  archeveques  sera  de  15,000  fr. 

LXV.  Le  traitement  des  eveques  sera  de  10,000  fr. 

LXVI.  Les  cures  seront  distribues  en  deux  classes. 

Le  traitement  des  cures  de  la  premiere  classe  sera  porte  a 
1500  francs ;  celui  des  cures  de  la  seconde  classe,  a  loco  francs. 

LXVII.  Les  pensions  dont  ils  jouissent  en  execution  des  lois 
de  I'Assemblee  constituante,  seront  precomptees  sur  leur  traite- 
ment. 

Les  conseils  generaux  des  grandes  communes  pourront,  sur 
leurs  biens  ruraux  ou  sur  leurs  octrois,  leur  accorder  une  aug- 
mentation de  traitement,  si  les  circonstances  I'exigent. 

LXVIII.  Les  vicaires  et  desservans  seront  choisis  parmi  les 
ecclesiastiques  pensionnes  en  execution  des  lois  de  I'Assemblee 
constituante. 

Le  montant  de  ces  pensions  et  le  produit  des  oblations  forme- 
ront  leur  traitement. 

LXIX.  Les  eveques  redigeront  les  projets  de  reglement  relatifs 
aux  oblations  que  les  ministres  du  culte  sont  autorises  a  recevoir 
pour  I'administration  des  sacremens.  Les  projets  de  reglement 
rediges  par  les  eveques,  ne  pourront  etre  publics,  ni  autrement 


320 


APPENDIX 


mis  a  execution,  qu'apres  avoir  ete  approuves  par  le  Gouverne- 
ment. 

LXX.  Tout  ecclesiastique  pensionnaire  de  I'Etat  sera  prive  de 
sa  pension,  s'il  refuse,  sans  cause  legitime,  les  fonctions  qui  pour- 
ront  lui  etre  confiees. 

LXXI.  Les  conseils  generaux  de  departement  sont  autorises  a 
procurer  aux  archeveques  et  eveques  un  logement  convenable. 

LXXII.  Les  presbyteres  et  les  jardins  attenans,  non  alienes, 
seront  rendus  aux  cures  et  aux  desservans  des  succursales.  A 
defaut  de  ces  presbyteres,  les  conseils  generaux  des  communes 
sont  autorises  a  leur  procurer  un  logement  et  un  jardin. 

LXXIIL  Les  fondations  qui  ont  pour  objet  I'entretien  des  mi- 
nistres  et  I'exercice  du  culte,  ne  pourront  consister  qu'en  rentes 
constituees  sur  I'Etat;  elles  seront  acceptees  par  I'eveque  dio- 
cesain,  et  ne  pourront  etre  executees  sans  I'autorisation  du  Gou- 
vernement. 

LXXIV.  Les  immeubles,  autres  que  les  edifices  destines  au  loge- 
ment et  les  jardins  attenans,  ne  pourront  etre  affectes  a  des  titres 
ecclesiastiques,  ni  possedes  par  les  ministres  du  culte  a  raison  de 
leurs  fonctions. 

Section  IV 
Des  Edifices  destines  au  Culte 

LXXV.  Les  edifices  anciennement  destines  au  culte  catholique, 
actuellement  dans  les  mains  de  la  nation,  a  raison  d'un  edifice 
par  cure  et  par  succursale,  seront  mis  a  la  disposition  des  eveques 
par  arretes  du  prefet  du  departement.  Une  expedition  de  ces 
arretes  sera  adressee  au  conseiller  d'etat  charge  de  toutes  les 
affaires  concernant  les  cultes. 

LXXVL  II  sera  etabli  des  fabriques  pour  veiller  a  I'entretien  et 
a  la  conservation  des  temples,  a  I'administration  des  aumones. 

LXXVII.  Dans  les  paroisses  ou  il  n'y  aura  point  d'edifice  dis- 
ponible  pour  le  culte,  I'eveque  se  concertera  avec  le  prefet  pour  la 
designation  d'un  edifice  convenable. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


D'Agoult,  incites  the  king  to 
fly,  141. 

d'Aguesseaii,  Henri,  connection 

with  Jansenists,  13. 
Aix  massacre,  226. 
d'Argenson,  44. 
Arnauld,  43,  71. 

Assembly,  National,  declares  it- 
self permanent,  49. 

Atheism,  alienates  Reformed 
Church  from  principles  of  the 
Revolution,  4. 

d'Aubermenil,  invents  Theophi- 
lanthropy,  236. 

Augereau,  coerces  the  legisla- 
ture, 230. 

Augustine,  interpretation  of  his 
doctrines  by  Calvin,  12. 

Avignon,  demands  incorpora- 
tion in  France,  150;  riots  at, 
184. 

Babeuf,  suppression  of  his  re- 
volt, 227. 

Bacon,  science  and  religion  con- 
nected in  his  system,  4. 

Bailly,  his  attempt  to  explain 
forged  poster,  141. 

Barbe-Marbois,  229. 

Barere,  208. 

Barnave,  115;  proposes  the  mo- 
tion that  all  priests  in  Assem- 
bly must  take  civil  oath,  142. 

Barras,  208. 

Barthelemy,  turns  royalist,  221 ; 
desires  a  new  constitution, 
229. 

Bastille,  36;  its  fall,  50;  politi- 
cal significance  of  its  fall,  57, 
70. 

Bayle,  nature  of  his  philoso- 
phy, 4. 


Beccari,  the  Milanese,  protests 
against  torture,  6. 

Benedict  XIV,  quoted  by  Des- 
moulins,  51. 

Bernier,  appointed  by  Bona- 
parte to  confer  with  papal  en- 
voys, 257  ;  his  arguments  with 
Spina,  260,  262. 

de  Bernis,  Pope  refuses  to  re- 
ceive his  successor,  184. 

de  Bethizy,  views  on  clerical 
property,  85. 

Bible,  its  place  in  Calvinism, 
xxviii. 

Billaud-Varenne,  his  renown  in 
1793,  196. 

Bodin,  his  political  philoso- 
phy, 4. 

Boisgelin,  his  proposition  as  to 
church  property,  109. 

Boissy  d'Anglas,  transformation 
of  France,  xxi ;  denounces 
the  Bishop  of  Vienne,  133 ; 
demands  freedom  of  worship, 
211  ;  his  suggestions  for  De- 
cadi  celebrations,  229. 

de  Bonal,  Frangois,  placed  at 
head  of  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mittee, 74;  decries  Civil  Con- 
stitution of  the  Clergy,  164. 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  his  part  in 
negotiating  the  Concordat, 
272.  273. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  his  Con- 
cordat, 60;  on  the  Day  of 
Sections,  219,  228;  and  the 
events  of  Fructidor,  230;  his 
influence  after  returning  from 
Egypt — ends  the  Directory, 
245  ;  Constitution  of  the  year 
VIII — the  Concordat  of  1801, 
250;  his  religious  character, 


324 


INDEX 


254,  255 ;  asks  the  Pope  to 
confer,  256;  his  proposals  to 
Pius  VII,  257,  258;  negotia- 
tions with  Consalvi,  262,  263, 
269 ;  beginnings  of  despot- 
ism, 269,  270 ;  assents  to  final 
draft  of  Concordat,  273 ;  pro- 
claims it  to  council  of  state, 
274 ;  despotic  effect  given  by 
means  of  "Organic  Articles" 
of  various  cults,  277 ;  his 
Catholic  policy  during  the 
empire,  279,  280. 

Boniface  VIII,  Bull  Unam 
Sanctam,  xxv. 

Bordeaux,  Jacobin  uprising  at, 
241. 

Bossuet,  his  Gallicanism,  11; 
leads  Gallican  movement,  20 ; 
explains  the  system  of  en- 
slaving France  by  combina- 
tion of  church  and  state,  28. 

Bouille,  assists  Louis  to  fly,  158. 

Bourbon,  House  of,  its  fate, 
xxii. 

Brienne,  Lomenie  de,  presents 
edict  of  tolerance  to  the  king, 
30,  43;  takes  civil  oath,  142; 
character,  153. 

Broglie,  reorganizes  king's  ar- 
my, 50. 

Byzantium,  relation  of  church 
and  state  in,  xxv. 

Cabanis,  his  essay  on  public 

festivals,  170. 
Cacault,     appointed  resident 

plenipotentiary  to  Rome,  261  ; 

his  suggestion  to  the  Pope, 

262. 

Caen,  riot  by  the  women  of, 
167. 

Cahier-Gerville,  his  report  on 
the  king's  veto,  187. 

Calas,  his  torture  and  death,  27. 

Calas  sisters  in  Voltaire's  fu- 
neral procession,  175. 

Calendar,  adoption  of  revolu- 
tionary, 197. 

Calonne,  tolerance  declared 
during  his  ministry,  30,  43. 


Calvin,  John,  his  interpretation 

of  Augustine,  12. 
Calvinism,  nature  of  its  protest, 

xxviii. 

Cambon,  115;  reports  to  the 
Convention  on  ecclesiastical 
expenses,  213. 

Camus,  his  influence  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee,  74, 
75  ;  in  the  debate  on  church 
property,  91,  92;  reputed  au- 
thor of  Civil  Constitution  of 
the  Clergy,  126,  127,  141  ;  ref- 
utation of  the  Pope's  brief — 
his  radicalism,  154,  157. 

Carnot,  desires  a  new  consti- 
tution, 229. 

Caselli,  sent  to  Paris  as  envoy 
by  Pius  VII,  257. 

de  Castellane,  pleads  for  reli- 
gious liberty,  80. 

Catherine  of  Russia,  harbors 
Jesuits.  21. 

Catholicism  menaced  by  the 
Assembly,  125. 

Champ  de  Mars  riot,  181. 

Charity,  maladministration  of 
church  funds,  87 ;  considered 
by  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mittee, no. 

Charles  the  Great,  his  epochal 
importance,  xxvi. 

Chasset,  his  plan  for  abolition 
of  tithes,  71,  72,  74,  92. 

Chauniette,  celebrates  the  re- 
turn to  reason,  197 ;  in  the 
festival  at  Notre  Dame,  198. 

Chemin,  his  promulgation  of 
Theophilanthropy,  236. 

Chenier,  Andre,  demands  tol- 
eration for  priests,  184. 

Chenier,  Marie  Joseph,  favors 
national  festivals,  197;  sup- 
ports Theophilanthropy,  236. 

Choiseul,  favors  Voltaire,  21  ; 
disgraced  by  Du  Barry,  22. 

Christianity,  place  in  history, 
xxv ;  its  relation  to  temporal 
power,  xxvi. 

Church  and  state,  their  alli- 
ance in  France,  19 ;  principles 


INDEX 


of  their  union.  35  ;  their  re- 
lation in  France.  England, 
and  America  respectively.  122, 
1^3- 

Church  estates  redeemed  from 
feudalism.  71. 

Civil  Constitution  of  the  Cler- 
gy, the  law  enacted.  125  ;  its 
provisions.  128,  129;  violent 
antagonism  aroused.  164 :  dis- 
cussed by  the  Legislative. 
165 ;  resisted  throughout 
France.  175;  text.  295. 

Claviere.  moderate  revolution- 
ary. 115. 

Clement  XIII.  his  reactionary 
temper.  21. 

Clement  XIV.  abolishes  Jesuit 
society  at  Rome.  21. 

Clermont,  Bishop  of.  Sec  de 
Bonal. 

Cloots.  his  celebration  on  June 
19.  1790.  172. 

Collot  d'Herbois,  his  renown 
in  1783.  196. 

Commendams.  bestowed  on  un- 
worthy nobles.  24. 

Concordat,  meaning  of  the 
term,  xxv ;  that  of  Bologna. 
20;  that  of  1801.  62.  250.  309; 
reasons  for  it,  250-255 ;  sev- 
enth draft  accepted  by  Con- 
salvi.271  ;  charges  of  fraud  on 
the  day  set  for  signing.  272 ; 
final  revision  and  signing. 
273 :  ratification  and  final 
execution.  274:  its  effect  in 
France  up  to  the  present, 
281 :  that  of  1803,  277 ;  those 
between  German  States  and 
the  papacy,  279. 
Condorcet.  supports  edict  of 
tolerance,  30:  as  a  leader  of 
the  burghers,  148. 
Consalvi.  sent  to  Paris  by  Pius 
\'II — his  negotiations.  262. 
263  :  problems  he  had  to  meet. 
208:  his  struggle  with  Ber- 
nier.  269  :  charges  fraud  when 
about  to  sign  Concordat,  272 ; 
comes  near  to  rupture  with 


Bonaparte,  but  finally  signs, 
273- 

Conseils  superieurs.  created.  43. 

Constance.  Council  of,  its  re- 
sults as  regarded  by  the  Gal- 
licans.  10. 

Constitution  or  bull  Unigeni- 
tus— its  effect  in  France.  14. 

Constitution  of  the  vear  VIII 
247. 

Consulate,  the  provisional,  its 
beginnings  and  early  activity. 
246. 

Convents,  broken  up,  104.  iSo. 
Corneille,  opposed  to  monarchy. 
13. 

Couthon.  his  reputation  in  1793. 
196. 

Crusades,  their  epochal  impor- 
tance, xxvi. 

Dalberg.  becomes  primate  of 
Germany,  278. 

Danton  and  the  Champ  de 
Mars  riot.  181  ;  his  dictator- 
ship. 192;  his  renown  in  1793. 
196. 

David,  his  association  with 
Theophilanthropy,  237. 

"Days,"  their  nature,  225,  226. 

Decadi  celebrations,  25 :  legis- 
lation concerning  them  re- 
pealed, 246. 

Declaration  of  Rights.  69;  de- 
bated in  the  Assembly.  77.  78. 

Deism.  \'oltaire's,  5. 

Delaunay.  surrenders  the  Bas- 
tille. 50. 

Descartes,  relations  of  science 
and  religion  discussed  by.  4. 

Desmoulins.  Camille.  his  speech 
at  the  Palais  Royal.  49,  51  ;  in 
the  Champ  de  ^^ars  riot,  181. 

Directory,  its  inauguration.  220  ; 
falls  into  discredit,  228;  its 
end.  245. 

Dol.  Bishop  of.  leads  royalist 
expedition  from  England.  217. 

Domat.  family  opposed  to  ab- 
solutism of  church  and  state, 
43. 


326 


INDEX 


Du  Barry,  her  reactionary  in- 
fluence, 21. 

Du  Bourg-Miroudot  takes  civil 
oath,  142 ;  assists  at  installa- 
tion of  Expilly,  143. 

Dupont  de  Nemours,  his  eco- 
nomic propositions,  86 ;  sup- 
ports Theophilanthropy,  236. 

Durand-Maillane.  placed  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee,  74. 

"Ecclesia  Dei,"  Bull,  274. 

Ecclesiastical  Committee,  its 
formation,  73. 

Edict  of  tolerance  of  1787,  30. 

Eligibility  for  ofiice,  determined 
by  the  Assembly,  113;  scheme 
opposed  by  the  communes. 

Emery,  his  attitude  toward  the 
political  oath,  193  ;  his  trial. 
194 ;  takes  the  Convention 
oath,  205 ;  his  work  during 
the  Terror,  206 ;  pleads  for 
submission  to  the  oath  of 
September,  1795,  216 ;  views 
on  new  laws  against  non- 
juring  priests.  218. 

Emigration,  the.  80. 

Encyclopedia,  of  d'Alembert 
and  Diderot,  6. 

English  Revolution  contrasted 
with  French,  189,  190. 

Erasmus,  discredits  old  monas- 
tic orders.  12. 

Estates  of  the  realm,  idea  of 
calling,  suggested  by  the 
clergy,  15,  16.  See  States- 
General. 

Expilly.  installed  as  first  consti- 
tutional bishop,  143. 

Fauchet.  becomes  president  of  a 
Jacobin  club,  146 ;  his  radi- 
calism. 154;  elected  to  the 
Legislative,  163 ;  denounces 
Ultramontane  clergy,  166 ; 
converted  back  to  orthodoxy, 
206. 

Festival  of  Federation,  171. 


Festivals,    their    revival,  169, 

170,  171. 
Fenelon.  as  a  Gallican,  10. 
Feudalism,    beginning    of  its 

downfall,  xxvii ;  voluntarily 

abolished  by  the  nobility  in 

France,  58,  67. 
Financial    corruption    of  the 

church,  23. 
Fouche,  one  of  the  Thermi- 

dorians,  208;  his  assertions 

to  Pius  VII,  262. 
France,   Catholicism   as  there 

represented,  xxviii ;  its  con- 
dition in  1796,  233. 
Francis,  Emperor  of  Austria, 

convenes  cardinals  to  elect  a 

successor  to  Pius  VI,  256 ; 

admits  loss  of  his  power,  267. 
Francis  I   (the  Bologna  Con- 
cordat), 20. 
Frederick  the   Great,  harbors 

Jesuits,  21. 
Frederick  William  of  Prussia, 

relations    with   Louis  XVI, 

141,  183. 
Freethinkers,   249;    liberty  of 

conscience  given  them  by  the 

Concordat,  251. 
Freron,  one  of  the  Thermidori- 

ans,  208. 

Gallicanism. origin  of  the  move- 
ment and  influence  on  the 
Roman  Church  in  1786,  9,  10; 
its  connection  with  Angli- 
canism, 13,  14. 

Garat,  in  the  debate  on  clerical 
property,  92. 

Gensonne,  advocates  repeal  of 
the  Civil  Constitution,  167. 

Gerle,  Dom.  placed  on  Eccle- 
siastical Committee.  74,  77; 
his  motion  on  church  property 
in  the  Assembly,  loi,  102; 
denounces  Montesquiou,  106 ; 
withdraws  his  motion,  108; 
his  connection  -with  Theot, 
199. 

Gobel,  takes  civil  oath,  142 ;  as- 
sists at  installation  of  Ex- 


INDEX 


3^7 


pilly  and  other  bishops.  143 : 
his  character,  153;  declares 
himself  a  radical.  154;  re- 
nounces Christianity,  197. 

Goethe,  his  opinion  on  the  bat- 
tle of  Valmy.  192. 

Gorges-XoirtS.  Society  of,  its 
activities.  38. 

Gouttes.  in  the  debate  on  church 
property.  92. 

Grand  Council,  its  powers  lim- 
ited by  the  Paris  parle merit. 
15- 

Grandes  remontrances,  made  by 
the  parlements.  16. 

Grandin.  on  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mittee, 74. 

Gregoire,  71.  74,  75.  76.  116; 
justification  of  civil  oath  for 
the  clerg>-,  140 :  his  character. 
145.  153:  as  a  leader  among 
the  burghers,  148 ;  checks 
apostasy,  197 :  remains  faith- 
ful to  constitutionality.  206. 
207 :  his  speech  for  religious 
liberty.  210;  efforts  to  reor- 
ganize Gallican  Church,  232. 
233 ;  denounces  decrees  for 
religious  observance  of  De- 
cadis — his  influence  on  Bona- 
parte and  the  Concordat.  2;9. 
260. 

Gregory  XVI.  vain  efforts 
to  suppress  "Little  Church" 
schism,  274. 

Hebert.  61  :  his  desire  to  de- 
christianize  France,  157;  the 
cult  of  Reason.  198. 

Hildebrand.  impossible  to  re- 
vive his  claims.  21. 

Hobbes.  influence  of  his  philos- 
ophy. 4. 

Hoche.  suppresses  Quiberon  ex- 
pedition. 217. 

Holland.  its  emancipation, 
xxviii. 

Hospitals,  their  shocking  condi- 
tion before  the  Revolution.  88. 

Hotman.  Francis,  originator  of 
social  contract  theory,  4. 


Humanity,  in  the  appeals  of 
Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  3. 

Huppes-Rouges,  Society  of,  its 
activities,  38. 

Ichon.  accuses  nonjuror  priests 
of  treason.  187. 

Index,  reply  to  the.  3. 

Infamc,  meaning  of  the  term 
in  Voltaire's  writings,  7 ; 
privilege  of  corrupt  church, 
22;  threefold  principle  of 
union  between  church  and 
state,  35  ;  classical  movement, 
38;  other  connections.  81.  95, 
132. 

Innocent    XI.    contests  with 

Louis  XIV.  9.  20.  55. 
Inquisition,  attitude  of  Jesuits 

toward  it.  12. 
Isnard,  demands  that  nonjuring 

priests  be  considered  traitors. 

185 :  his  argument  for  their 

banishment,  186. 

Jallet,  in  the  debate  on  tithes. 
71- 

Jansen.  his  ''Augustinus."  12. 

Jansenism  of  the  Roman 
Church  in  1786.  9;  its  nature, 
11;  its  fall,  21:  struggle  of 
its  adherents  with  parochial 
clergy.  54 ;  takes  its  revenge 
by  Civil  Constitution  of  the 
Clerg>'.  145. 

Jean-Bon.  ardent  republican 
and  Protestant,  115. 

de  Jesse,  proposes  confiscation 
of  silver  plate  belonging  to 
the  church.  85. 

Jesuits,  reply  to.  3 ;  embittered 
against  other  factions.  9 :  their 
influence  in  the  declining 
monarchy.  10:  their  adher- 
ence to  the  doctrines  of  Pe- 
lagius.  11:  their  fall.  20. 

Jews,  their  character  and  his- 
tory in  France.  116.  117;  as 
affected  by  Bonaparte's  "or- 
ganic laws,"  277. 


328 


INDEX 


Johannot,  moderate  revolution- 
ary and  Protestant,  115. 

Jordan,  Camille,  his  great  ora- 
tion, 229. 

Jorente  of  Orleans,  takes  civil 
oath,  142. 

Jourdan,  defeat  of  his  arm}', 
228. 

de  Juigne,  his  flight,  80;  his 

charity,  87. 
Juliet,  in  the  debate  on  church 

property,  92. 

Kleber,  in  Vendee,  207. 

Labarre,  tortured  and  killed, 
28,  29. 

Laborde,  in  debate  on  the  Dec- 
laration of  Rights,  78 ;  pleads 
for  religious  liberty,  80. 

Labrousse,  Suzanne,  her  influ- 
ence on  Dom  Gerle,  77. 

La  Coste,  demands  reform  of 
ecclesiasticism,  72. 

Lafayette,  speech  on  devotion 
of  his  guards,  108;  protects 
worship  of  nonjurors,  147; 
advocates  religious  liberty, 
160. 

Lafonte  de  Savines,  takes  civil 
oath,  142;  becomes  orthodox, 
206. 

Lalande,  placed  on  the  Eccle- 
siastical Committee,  74. 

de  Lameth,  Alexandre,  demands 
state  ownership  of  church 
property,  72. 

Lamoignon,  43. 

Lamourette,  206. 

Lan;uinais,  71,  72,  74,  157,  216. 

Lanterne,  La,  51. 

Lapoule,  in  the  debate  on  tithes, 

La  Revelliere-Lepeaux,  his 
withdrawal  from  the  Direc- 
tory, 228 ;  high  priest  of  The- 
ophilanthropy,  237. 

Lasource,  Protestant,  moder- 
ate revolutionary,  115. 

Latins,  critical  spirit  among 
them,  3. 


Latuque,  Bernard  de,  his  mo- 
tion for  religious  tolerance, 
116. 

Le  Coz,  145. 

Legislative  Assembly,  its  start, 
160;  receives  reports  on  riots, 
162;  its  composition,  163; 
Girondin  influence,  182;  de- 
clares its  permanent  author- 
ity, 188 ;  sanctions  sacking  of 
the  Tuileries  and  abolishes 
religious  orders,  191  ;  takes 
their  property,  191  ;  its  virtual 
abdication,  192;  takes  keep- 
ing of  vital  statistics  from 
the  clergy,  192. 

Legrand,  his  report  on  eccle- 
siastical matters  and  his  prop- 
osition, 180. 

Le  Maitre,  43. 

Leo  X  (the  Bologna  Concor- 
dat), 20. 

Leo  XII,  vain  efforts  to  sup- 
press "Little  Church"  schism, 
274. 

Leo  XIII,  his  letter  heals  "Lit- 
tle Church"  schism,  274. 

Letellier,  his  work  in  the  bull 
"Unigenitus,"  14. 

Levoyer  de  Boutigny,  views  on 
church  and  state,  133. 

Liberty,  French  concept  of,  40. 

Life  Guards  banquet,  its  ef- 
fects, 79. 

Lindet,  196. 

Locke,  4. 

Lombard-Lachaux,  115. 

de  la  Losere,  115. 

Louis  XIV,  difficulties  with  the 
papacy,  9,  20,  55. 

Louis  XV,  torture  during  his 
reign,  30. 

Louis  XVI,  abatement  of  tor- 
ture in  his  reign,  30 ;  forced 
from  Versailles  to  Paris,  79, 
90 ;  his  attitude  toward  church 
and  state,  T08 ;  yields  as  to 
Civil  Constitution  of  the 
Clergy,  131  ;  motives  for  as- 
senting to  civil  oath  for  the 
clergy,  139,  140;  plans  flight, 


INDEX 


329 


141  ;  effect  of  his  treachery, 
144;  charged  with  confiding 
in  refractory  priests,  144.  147; 
alienates  the  moderate  liber- 
als, 148;  his  hypocrisy,  149, 
150:  his  flight  to  Varennes 
and  its  effects,  154,  158;  pow- 
er of  the  Jesuits  over  him, 
158;  his  message  on  leaving, 
159:  speech  before  the  legis- 
lature, October  sixth,  181  ; 
desire  for  his  liberation  by 
royalists,  182 ;  his  treason, 
183 ;  suspicion  aroused  to- 
ward him,  183 ;  appalled  by 
Avignon  riots,  vetoes  decree 
against  nonjuring  priests, 
184;  vetoes  decree  of  Legis- 
lative against  nonjurors.  185: 
likewise  that  making  itself 
permanent,  188;  desire  of  Ul- 
tramontanes  for  his  flight. 
188;  his  palace  stoned  and 
himself  and  his  family  de- 
posed and  imprisoned,  190, 
191  ;  his  execution,  193. 
Louis  XVIII,  xvi ;  title  as- 
sumed by  Comte  de  Provence, 
227. 

LuQon,    Bishop    of.     Sec  de 

Mercy. 
Luneville.  Peace  of.  267. 
Lyons  massacre,  226. 

Mably,  Abbe,  embraces  doc- 
trines of  Rousseau.  5 ;  his 
monarchical  convictions.  44. 

de  Maistre,  testifies  as  to  im- 
morality of  the  clergy,  41. 

Malesherbes.  supports  edict  of 
tolerance.  30;  opposition  to 
absolutism  in  church  and 
state,  43. 

Malouet.  his  speech  on  clerical 
property.  92.  93.  95.  285  ;  his 
indignation  at  placards,  141  ; 
plans  with  Mirabeau  to  avert 
revolution,  153. 

Marat,  opposes  Assembly's  eli- 
gibility rules.  113:  his  reli- 
gion, 116;  his  influence  on 


the  burghers.  148;  his  suspi- 
cions of  Louis,  183 ;  his  re- 
nown in  1793,  196. 

Marboeuf.  views  on  liberty  of 
conscience,  59. 

Marolles.  becomes  president  of 
a  Jacobin  club,  146. 

Marseilles  massacre,  227. 

Martinique,  money  scandals  of 
Jesuits  in,  20. 

Massillon.  as  a  Gallican,  10;  his 
arraignment  of  the  monks, 
87. 

Mattei, mediator  between  Bona- 
parte and  Pins  VI,  241. 

Maury,  in  the  debate  on  church 
property,  91  ;  in  the  debate 
on  the  civil  oath  for  the  cler- 
gy, 136;  his  attitude  toward 
the  political  oath,  193. 

de  Mercy,  Charles,  resists  Civil 
Constitution  of  the  Clergy, 
164. 

Merlin,  his  withdrawal  from 
the  Directory,  228. 

Mirabeau.  his  testimony  as  to 
immorality  of  the  clergy,  41  ; 
other  connections.  61,  70,  71, 
78,  80;  agitates  for  seculari- 
zation of  church  property.  90, 
91,  93,  102.  107.  108.  116.  132; 
reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Cler- 
mont, 136,  141,  150;  his  death, 
?53- 

Mirabeau,  the  younger,  in  the 
debate  on  the  Declaration  of 
Rights.  77. 

Monasteries,  resist  constitu- 
tional bishops,  144;  their  sup- 
pression. 180. 

Monceau.  in  Vendee,  207. 

Montalembert,  testimony  as  to 
immorality  of  the  clerg>'.  41. 

Montault,  converted  to  ortho- 
doxy. 206. 

Montesquiou,  his  support  of 
royalty,  44,  72.  74,  105 ;  re- 
signs presidency  of  Assem- 
bly, 106. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  his  obser- 
vations at  court,  149. 


330 


INDEX 


de  Moy,  advocates  repeal  of 
the  Civil  Constitution,  167 ; 
his  plea  for  disestablishment 
of  the  church,  187. 

Nantes,  Francois  de,  argues 
that  religious  agitators  are  all 
seditious,  186. 

Napoleon.    See  Bonaparte. 

National  Convention,  its  reli- 
gious attitude,  193 ;  the  po- 
litical oath  demanded,  193 ; 
execution  of  the  king,  193 ; 
its  atrocities,  194-6;  attempts 
to  defend  it,  195  ;  prestige  of 
its  armies,  1795-8,  227. 

Navarre,  219. 

Necker,  his  plan  of  reform,  43  ; 

his  fall,  49,  50,  57,  73. 
New  knowledge,  its  nature,  6. 
Noailles,  his  protection  of  Jan- 

senists,  13. 

Orders,  religious,  abolished, 
191. 

Organic  articles  of  the  Catholic 
cult,  275,  276,  312. 

D'Ormesson,  on  Ecclesiastical 
Committee,  74. 

Otto,  the  Great,  his  epochal  im- 
portance, xxvi. 

Palais  Royal  Club,  49. 

Papacy,  failure  to  secure  tem- 
poral power,  xxvii ;  deprived 
of  power  by  Civil  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Clergy,  128;  its 
historical  position  in  France, 

132,  133- 
Paper  money,  first  issue,  104. 
Parens,  renounces  Christianity, 

197. 

Pavlement,  the  Paris,  its  oppo- 
sition to  power  of  crown  and 
church,  14,  15;  abolished  and 
reestablished,  22. 

Parlements,  the  provincial,  fol- 
low the  lead  of  that  of  Paris, 

Parochial  clergy,  their  griev- 


ances and  high  character,  42 ; 
protest  against  higher  clergy, 
54- 

Pascal,  his  opposition  to  royal 

authority,  13, 
Pastoret,  229. 

Paulmier,  Frangois,  influence  of 
his  pamphlet,  94. 

Pauperism,  considered  by  Ec-  - 
clesiastical  Committee,  iii. 

Pelagius,  his  doctrines  followed 
by  the  Jesuits,  11. 

Philip  Augustus,  21. 

Physiocrats,  their  creed,  7. 

Pius  VI,  consulted  by  the  king 
as  to  the  Civil  Constitution 
of  the  Clergy,  130;  his  fatal 
mistakes  in  negotiations  with 
the  Assembly,  134;  his  so- 
called  reply  to  Civil  Consti- 
tution of  the  Clergy,  152; 
denounces  constitutional  bish- 
ops, 153 ;  identifies  himself 
with  monarchy,  168 ;  his  sup- 
port of  French  orthodox 
church,  187 ;  his  attitude  to- 
ward the  political  oath,  194 ; 
refuses  to  assist  in  reorgani- 
zation of  the  Gallican  Church. 
234 ;  his  position  in  France, 
235 ;  armistice  of  Bologna 
and  treaty  of  Tolentino,  241  ; 
his  deportation  to  France  and 
his  death,  242 ;  interment  of 
his  remains,  246. 

Pius  VII,  250;  his  election  and 
accession,  256 ;  sends  envoys 
to  confer  with  Bonaparte, 
257;  his  resistance  to  Bona- 
parte, 268 ;  gives  effect  to 
provisions  of  the  Concordat, 
275  ;  his  indignation  at  effect 
given  to  organic  laws,  276 ; 
breach  with  Napoleon,  277 ; 
his  captivity,  278,  279. 

Pluralism,  56. 

Pombal,  banishes  the  Jesuits 

from  Portugal,  20. 
Pompadour,  favors  Voltaire,  21. 
Pontchartrain,   his  connection 

with  Jansenism,  13. 


INDEX 


331 


Portalis.  pleads  for  toleration. 
220;  desires  a  new  constitu- 
tion. 229. 

Port  Royal.  13. 

Portugal.  Inquisition  estab- 
lished by  the  Jesuits,  12; 
Jesuits  banished.  20. 

Press,  professional  writers  for 
the.  5. 

Priests,   their   troubles  under 

Civil    Constitution    of  the 

Clerg}'  begin.  132. 
Private  judgment,  meaning  of 

term  in  Reformation.  3. 
Property  of  church,  declared  at 

the  disposal  of  the  nation. 

109. 

Protestantism,  embitterment  of. 
against  Catholic  factions  in 
1786.  9;  its  adherents  hated 
by  the  rest  of  the  French. 
37 ;  emancipation  and  rise  of 
its  supporters.  105  :  its  vicis- 
situdes and  final  emancipa- 
tion in  France,  114-117:  be- 
comes almost  extinct  in 
France.  239:  Bonaparte's  or- 
ganic laws.  276.  277 ;  effect 
throughout  Europe  of  the 
breach  between  Napoleon 
and  Pius  VII.  279. 

Provence.  Comte  de.  summoned 
to  reenter  France.  181 :  as- 
sumes title  of  Louis  XVIII, 
227. 

Quesnay.  his  doctrines  given  in 
the  Encyclopedia.  6. 

Rabaud.  Paul,  death  of,  239. 

Rabaud  St.  Etienne.  formulates 
edict  of  tolerance.  30 :  in  the 
Assembly.  80 ;  made  chair- 
man. 105  ;  organizes  Protes- 
tant congregation.  115  :  desire 
to  erastianize  France.  157. 

Rastatt.  Congress  of.  treat- 
ment of  French  plenipoten- 
tiaries, 228. 

Reason,  adopted  as  the  divin- 


ity of  France — the  festival  at 
Notre  Dame  and  its  effects. 
198. 

Reformation,  results  in  various 
countries  contrasted,  xxviii. 

Religious  liberty,  decreed.  211. 

Representative  government,  its 
religious  aspect  in  France. 
121.  122. 

Republicanism,  idea  of  the  term 
as  first  used  in  France.  148. 

Restoration,  Concordat  under 
the.  280. 

Retz.  Cardinal  de,  supported  by 
the  Jansenists.  13. 

Revolution.  American,  influ- 
ence of  philosophy  on.  4. 

Revolution,  English,  influence 
of  Locke.  4. 

Revolution.  French,  its  nature, 
xxi :  its  inception,  xxii.  xxiii : 
influence  of  Jansenism.  13 ; 
religious  zeal  in  early  stages, 
52. 

Roanne  massacre.  226. 

Robert,  influence  of  his  pam- 
phlet. 148. 

Robespierre,  his  Rousseauism. 
116;  on  Civil  Constitution  of 
the  Clergy.  132:  a  leader  of 
the  burghers,  148 :  desires  to 
avert  war.  182;  his  suspicions 
of  Louis.  183  ;  his  renown  in 
1793.  195 ;  seeks  to  restore 
cult  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
199:  discredited  by  discov- 
eries. 199.  200:  his  final  fall. 
200 ;  abolishes  necessity  of 
written  proofs  before  the 
Revolutionarv-  tribunal.  208 : 
disavowed  by  Jacobin  Club. 
209. 

La  Rochefoucauld,  opposed  to 
monarchy.  13 ;  his  motion  on 
church  property.  108. 

Rohan.  Cardinal,  effect  of  the 
affair  of  the  diamond  neck- 
lace. 41  ;  his  flight.  152. 

Romanism,  its  union  of  secular 
and  religious  power  attacked 
by  Voltaire.  8. 


332 


INDEX 


Rome,  theory  of  the  two  pow- 
ers, xxvii, 

Rousseau,  nature  of  his  appeal, 
3 ;  use  of  social  contract  the- 
ory, 4 ;  his  philosophy,  5,  44, 
69,  124, 

Rousseauism,  168;  the  father- 
land cult,  184. 

Royer-Collard,  229 ;  effects  of 
his  speech,  230;  proclaims 
necessity  of  an  agreement 
with  the  papacy,  249. 

Rozet,  his  indictment  of  the 
church,  36. 

St.  Affrique,  Bernard  de,  115. 

Saint  Andre.  115. 

de  St.  Just,  his  influence  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  Committee,  74. 

Saint-Pierre,  supports  Theo- 
philanthropy,  236-237. 

Salmeron,  views  on  sover- 
eignty, 219. 

Schism  in  French  church 
wrought  by  Civil  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Clergy,  128. 

de  Sevigne,  Madame,  her  op- 
position to  royal  authority,  13. 

Sieyes,  71,  iii;  his  views  on 
human  rights,  112;  his  influ- 
ence on  Bonaparte.  247. 

Simeon,  his  desire  for  a  new 
constitution,  229. 

Sirven,  his  persecution  and 
murder,  28. 

Spina,  sent  as  envoy  to  Paris 
by  Pius  VII,  257;  objects  to 
French  proposals.  259,  260. 

Spinoza,  nature  of  his  philos- 
ophy, 4. 

States-General,  convoked,  30 ; 
contest  with  the  clergy,  54. 

Suarez,  his  views  on  sover- 
eignty, 219. 

Talleyrand,  72 ;  advocates  con- 
fiscation of  clerical  property, 
89,  95,  102 ;  takes  civil  oath, 
142;  installs  Expilly,  143;  his 
character,    153;    pleads  for 


liberty  of  conscience,  154; 
his  views  on  public  festivals, 
170;  says  mass  on  July  four- 
teenth, 171  ;  writes  plea  of 
Paris  Directorate  for  toler- 
ance, 187 ;  appointed  by  Bon- 
aparte to  confer  with  papal 
envoys,  257 ;  his  arguments 
with  them,  260. 

Tallien,  208. 

Tarascon  massacre,  226. 

Tennis  Court  Oath,  68. 

Terror,  its  effects  on  sincere 
Christians,  203-205. 

Teutons,  critical  spirit  among 
them,  3. 

Theism,  binds  the  Reformed 
Church  to  Catholicism,  4. 

Themines  of  Blois,  inconsis- 
tency of  his  position  on 
church  privileges,  59. 

Theophilanthropy,  its  inception, 
232 ;  its  origin,  nature,  and 
spread,  236,  237,  238;  its  ef- 
fect on  social  status  and  busi- 
ness, 246. 

Theot,  Catherine,  her  influence 
on  Dom  Gerle,  77. 

Thibaudeau,  208. 

de  Thionville,  208. 

Third  Estate  of  1789,  its  com- 
position, 43. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  xxviii. 

Thouret,  in  the  debate  on 
clerical  property,  92. 

Tithes,  62,  71  ;  abolished,  72, 
88. 

Tolentino,  Treaty  of.  241. 

Torne,  protests  against  enforce- 
ment of  the  civil  oath,  166. 

Toulon,  fight  between  laborers 
and  royalist  army.  226. 

Treguier,  Bishop  of,  arraigned 
for  treason,  133. 

Treilhard,  on  Ecclesiastical 
Committee,  74 ;  his  speech  on 
clerical  property,  102-104. 

Trent,  Council  of,  3. 

Turgot,  his  doctrines  in  the 
Encyclopedia,  6 ;  agitates  for 
the  edict  of  tolerance,  30;  op- 


INDEX 


333 


posed  to  absolutism  of  com- 
bined church  and  state,  43. 

"Unigenitus,"  Bull,  14. 

Valmy,  battle  of,  192. 

Vaneau,  placed  on  the  Eccle- 
siastical Committee,  74. 

Venaissin,  demands  incorpora- 
tion in  France.  150. 

Vendee,  rebellion  in,  161. 

Verdun,  besieged,  191. 

Villaincourt,  Abbess  of,  guar- 
dian of  Labarre,  29. 


Villar,  while  bishop,  becomes 
president  of  a  Jacobin  club, 
146. 

Villette  family  in  Voltaire's  fu- 
neral procession,  175. 

Voidel,  proposes  constitutional 
oath  for  the  clergy,  135. 

Voltaire,  nature  of  his  appeal, 
3 ;  his  use  of  the  term  "Infa- 
mous," 7,  20,  21,  22,  26,  28, 
30,  38,  44,  61  ;  his  remains  in 
the  Pantheon,  172-6, 

Voulland,  115. 

White  Terror,  226,  227. 


BW5857  .563 

The  French  revolution  and  religious 

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